Diary of my start in the DSLR world of photography

John · #81 (**permalink**) 17-12-2006, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiTheDragon

All excellent shots John. With the first Swan though, firstly you didn't need such a fast shutter speed so you could have changed the ISO to 100/200 and about +1/3 or +2/3 stops.
Nice to see you experimenting, the only way to learn.

Dai

Hi Dai

As you can see with the second photo, that is almost the settings I did use. The trouble was with the first one (just one shot of many I took) the sun was low and shining right at the Swan. It was fiecely bright and I found it very hard to get a setting that didn't have some parts of the Swan bleached out.

I can see that I will have to get some images taken in RAW and then practice find out how to edit then convert them.

John

glsammy · #82 (**permalink**) 17-12-2006, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John

Hi Dai

As you can see with the second photo, that is almost the settings I did use. The trouble was with the first one (just one shot of many I took) the sun was low and shining right at the Swan. It was fiecely bright and I found it very hard to get a setting that didn't have some parts of the Swan bleached out.

I can see that I will have to get some images taken in RAW and then practice find out how to edit then convert them.

John

Another advantage of shooting in RAW is you can forget about setting the white balance, it's easy to change on the rare occasions the camera might get it wrong. RAW won't rescue every shot on exposure, but it certainly can help!

John · #83 (**permalink**) 17-12-2006, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glsammy

Another advantage of shooting in RAW is you can forget about setting the white balance, it's easy to change on the rare occasions the camera might get it wrong. RAW won't rescue every shot on exposure, but it certainly can help!

I have now set it on RAW and will start to take pictures using that from now on. I just have to learn how to edit the images next.

Having said that using RAW will not rescue images that are blown out and that what I was trying to get right yesterday.

I went out with Boddie today and the weather was absolutely gorgeous but we both struggled with the strong light and anything that had white in it was a nightmare. I have possibly failed on everything I took today that had white in, it which doesn't bode very well for my Spanish trip which, hopefully, will be full of bright days like today's.

John

Jon · #84 (**permalink**) 17-12-2006, 06:39 PM

John, you have some good shots there, the old adage is you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear springs to mind. If you are after technical excellence then as a general rule of thumb you need 1/250 sec or less at f8 with a big lens on a tripod or bean bag. Having said that if the bird is still you may be able to drop to much less again depending upon if you are using a steady support and or the equivalent of a cable release. The general maxim to bear in mind is to keep the camera and lens still, and there is nothing more still than static. Having eliminated that element you have to bear in mind the activity or speed of the subject. Many people will cringe but if you get used to the daylight intensity you can say to yourself it is an ISO 100 or 200 or 400 day, if you stick your camera on Programme, it will give the best setting. I know I am inviting criticism here but if you get the general drift of my logic I think you will see it is more or less correct. You need adequate depth of filed coupled with a suitably fast shutter speed, your Programme seeting does precisely that, with the ISO provided, if you think it is too slow, then increase the ISO, soon you will get the drift and use Av instead of Programme. But hey there is no shame in using progamme to get an initial camera setting!. Jon

Boddie · #85 (**permalink**) 17-12-2006, 06:53 PM

I did really well today.

About 20 minutes into our day and my batteries went. They just went - just like that. To say I am not happy is an understatement. I want my money back.

The poor guy who commented on what a fabulous piece of kit I had must have wondered why I was less than enthusiastic.

eeyore · #86 (**permalink**) 22-12-2006, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boddie

I did really well today.

About 20 minutes into our day and my batteries went. They just went - just like that. To say I am not happy is an understatement. I want my money back.

now you know why I carry lots of spare batteries (six sets to be precise), plus two for the down loader - and a charger to charge them up in the car.

ReynoImages · #87 (**permalink**) 31-12-2006, 01:42 PM

Great shots, I hope my pics are as good when I finally get hold of a DSLR

John · #88 (**permalink**) 31-12-2006, 07:00 PM

Well I'm back from Spain with hopefully the odd half decent photo. I doubt if I will have the time to upload any tonight as I am off to Norfolk first thing in the morning so need to be in bed early tonight. I also have a lot of work to do on the images I took in Spain so I will be busy tonight.

If the weather is kind to me I plan to stay out birding for the rest of the week starting in Norfolk and ending wherever. Once back I will start to upload some images.

John

John · #89 (**permalink**) 06-01-2007, 09:58 AM

I have posted some photos in other threads. Here is a link to some photos of birds that can be seen in the UK that were in Spain.
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...n-britain.html

Here is a link to photos of birds I took in Norfolk.
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...s-norfolk.html

Below are a few photos I took on both the 4th & 5th Jan this year.

male Reed Bunting. On the 4th Jan. Taken at Whitacre Heath.

female Reed Bunting. On the 4th Jan. Taken at Whitacre Heath.

Water Rail at Ladywalk NR. on the 4th Jan.

Water Rail taken at Upton Warren on 05/12/2007. Heavily cropped as the bird was over 100 feet away.

Pintail, taken in the wild enclosure in front of the In Focus shop at Slimbridge on 05/12/2007.

Treecreeper at Brandon Marsh on 04/12/2007. Hopefully I will get a chance to take a good image of this species. A bird I had no chance of getting via digiscoping but always in with a chance with a DSLR set up.

That is the end of my last two weeks in the birding field. I may rest up awhile now as there has been a lot of trip report typing, a lot of data base entries and certainly a lot of photo editing done over the last two weeks.

I need a holiday to get over it.

John

John · #90 (**permalink**) 13-01-2007, 08:14 PM

The weather was atrocious again today but I didn't let it beat me. I wanted to try and photograph some Tree Sparrows at a Nature Reserve near Northampton (Summer Leys) but failed. They were just a bit too far away and with the bad light and rediculously windy conditions I had no chance with them.

However I did have a cracking little Wren within range as well as a Dunnock that just dropped in for a few seconds so took advantage of them. They were the only photos I managed. Still I did manage to get 24 decent Wren images so I am pleasded with that considering most of them were taken at 1/50th and a few at 1/100th. They are usually such quick birds that I didn't think in the low light conditions that I would have a chance of getting any images at all, never mind so many. I also had the 1.4 teleconverter attached which really impressed me under these conditions. needless to say I am glad I bought that teleconverter as it has brought the birds that bit more closer to me.

Dunnock

The Wren was on a bit of a feeding frenzy and I have three photos showing him feeding.

John