Critque of my own photographs

[Ollie]

Hi all shown below are five photographs all taken this morning from my bedroom window. I was using the Canon 400mm f5.6 lens for all the shots. The camera was mounted on a hide clamp on the bedroom windowsill.

Under each photograph I have added remarks as to what I think is good and what is bad about the photograph and given each photograph a mark out of ten. I am not vain enough to think these are good photographs, they aren't. This is purely my own opinion of the photographs and it would be nice if any of you would look and give them a mark out of ten and comment on them if you feel like it. Please don't be afraid to say what you think, I am pretty thick skinned and don't offend easily. Bear in mind that I could not move in any closer to these under the circumstances and all have been cropped to some extent.

Thanks
Roger

No/1 Blackbird sitting on the hedge


Bad points, Unable to get a blurred background as the bird is too close to the background for this to be possible.
Good points Sharpness ok Exposure ok, although the beak is a little blown, pose not bad because it shows the tail nicely splaid out depth of field ok.
My marks out of ten = 5 mainly because of the background

No/2 Blackbird on a garage roof


Bad points. Exposure on the bird is ok on the right hand side but not the left due to the light conditions at the time. I should have altered the camera exposure settings more to compensate.
Good points. Sharpness ok, depth of field acceptable, background ok
My marks out of ten = 5

No/3 Pied Wagtail sitting on a garage roof


Bad points Not really sharp enough, not enough contrast between the bird and the background.
Good points. Pose ok
My marks out of ten = 3

No/4 Robin with a grub


Good points. Lighting ok, sharpness acceptable, nice pose with the grub in the beak, exposure ok and depth of field ok.
Bad points. Photograph is spoiled by the guttering the bird is sat on and the garage roof.
My marks out of ten = 6

No/5 Wren sat on garage spouting


Good points. Reasonable pose, exposure not too bad.
Bad points depth of field not great the tail is out of focus, sharpness could be better, completely spoiled by the background,
My marks out of ten = 4

[jasongallier]

Hi Ollie

Firstly i used to put photos up for critique on another site and all I got was positive remarks which was good for my ego but didn't help improve my photography!!!

Secondly you are a bit hard on yourself with your marking!!!

Thirdly try some portrait oriented photogrpahs as I strongly think that is the main problem with the two blackbird photographs.

Lastly - Compositionally they are all very central placed.

So as for individual photographs:

The 1st Blackbird - The only thing wrong is the landscape orientation. The light is good and reveals all the details in the dark feathers. Background is good - it is out focus enough to make the bird stand out and it is fairly uniform, shame the BG isn't the whole frame but thats minor.

2nd Blackbird - Again portrait orientaion would have worked better IMHO. Sidelighting is good and I think the exposure is OK but in this case I doesn't quiet work, maybe if he had turned abit more?

Pied wagtail - BG lets this one down. otherwise I would have said that having the camera lower and being on the same level as the wagtail would have given a more intimate feel, that would also mean that the roof wouldn't make up any of the background. Perhaps its best to not focus (pun intended) on white birds when the sun is shining as the highlights look a little blown out.

Robin - BG again! The meal worm is a nice touch though. Good colours and exposure.

Wren - Although the BG isn't great it is at least complementary (colourwise). I don't like the pose much, would have prefered head up but that's purely personal taste.

Hmmmm.........hope that's OK.

I've been out and about so I should post some photographs for you to take apart! Maybe I'll post some later today and you can have your say.

Jason

[nightshade]

The nature of this type of photography means you take the offered shot
and hope to record a good image if you want superb images it is either luck
or a long term stake out
Your images are technically good and give a faithful record I would be more
than happy with these results
How's your back,getting better I hope,backs can give such misery

[Jon]

Hi Roger, here goes don't be offended! Firstly I am assuming you have sent these primarily for a technical appraisal as opposed to an opinion on how well the shots are from a visual perception point of view (?)
Blackbird 1 - I don't find the background that problematical but I know what you are referring to. Really I suppose you have to ask do you want a shot of a blackbird in that location. The bill is a little over exposed and perhaps a little more detail is possible in the plumage. Did you play with levels and with highlight/shadows, I think you may get a little more detail. The other point is the plumage looks refractive to me - is it over sharpened or is the contrast a little high?

Blackbird 2 - The light is very directional so the exposure is a little uneven, again you have to ask is this the sort of background you wanted. Regards the bird again perhaps a little tinkering with shadows highlights may help.

Pied Wagtail - first impression the detail looks blocked in the plumage, this may be due to over sharpening or perhaps cropping coupled with a moderate ISO speed? If I have to crop a shot then I need to know that the bird is bigger than the circle in the viewfinder otherwise I find the detail is lost, this of course is especially so when ISO 400 plus.

Robin - this looks glary and refractive again. Sorry I didn't check your post so I can't remember the ISO but again I think a little experimenting with shadow/highlights and levels may help. The other thing is do you set the sharpening to minimal before you manipulate the image. I have also been advised that it is advisable to turn off sharpening and adjust this on the PC instead of letting the camera do it for you. I suppose this is counterproductive though if you prefer JPEG??, i.e. you lose the convenience of JPEG over RAW.

Wren - very difficult to get a good shot because the little blighters are never still! I think the capture is good but the pose is not ideal and unfortunately the background isn't either.

Hope this is OK, I would also suggest you may check the parameters on your camera. I personally set everything to the mid point with the exception of sharpness which I set to zero.
I as a general rule find that if an image has to be cropped then I try my hardest not to exceed ISO 200, obviously if cropping is minimal this is not problematical and ISO 400 is OK.

Regards noise reduction I have a lot of learning to do there, but I am of the opinion that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The more you reduce noise the more detail you remove and the converse applies, so if the image is not captured optimally then you won't get the optimum out of it. I fully expect to be contradicted here as I simply don't have enough skill in the use of noise reduction.
Jon

[glsammy]

Hi Roger.

Good shots. I agree that the composition could be improved, they are nearly all central in the frame. I always try and arrange the eye point to be somewhere near one of the 1/3rd cross points if possible.
You could of course work on the background clutter in software to reduce its effect, it's obviously something you can't control with the camera, but I'd have blurred the background more, and removed some of the eye catching detail, such as the white bright area to the right of the bird on the Wagtail image.
I'm in no position to say any more, the one thing I lack is any artistic ability.

[Ollie]

Thanks for the replies so far everybody. I agree with what you have all said particularly about the composition of them, and how they could be improved and am making mental notes of it.

Nightshade has probably hit the nail on the head with this part of the reply

"The nature of this type of photography means you take the offered shot
and hope to record a good image if you want superb images it is either luck
or a long term stake out"

This is exactly the problem with shooting from the bedroom window, there is very little scope for moving camera position when it is mounted on the hide clamp, a little up/down and sideways motion is all that is possible because the window frame blocks the view otherwise. I am not using this as an excuse for my results but it is a limiting factor on what can be acheived.

Thanks again for looking and by the way I probably should have mentioned these were all shot in jpeg not raw.

Roger

[glsammy]

One point I don't agree with is that you loose out with jpeg rather than RAW regarding sharpening. I use jpeg, and have the camera set to 0 Sharpening, in fact 0 everything!
I can sharpen perfectly well in software. You may lose out re exposure control, but that's going over old ground now, been done to death before!

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by glsammy

One point I don't agree with is that you loose out with jpeg rather than RAW regarding sharpening. I use jpeg, and have the camera set to 0 Sharpening, in fact 0 everything!
I can sharpen perfectly well in software. You may lose out re exposure control, but that's going over old ground now, been done to death before!

I don't know if your camera menu is the same as the 400D Graham but I have mine set to standard picture style and everything within the standard picture style, contrast sharpness, saturation and colour tone set at the halfway mark. I will set them all to 0 tomorrow and have a play to see what results I get
Roger

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Ollie

I don't know if your camera menu is the same as the 400D Graham but I have mine set to standard picture style and everything within the standard picture style, contrast sharpness, saturation and colour tone set at the halfway mark. I will set them all to 0 tomorrow and have a play to see what results I get
Roger

On the 20D there's nothing like the picture style, but you can set parameters. Mine is set to 0 for all, that's Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation and Colour Tone. I prefer to make any adjustments, not the camera.
Another user I'm trying to help has problems getting the sharpness he wants, but he had the camera set to +4. That made any further alterations impossible, plus the camera didn't seem to do a very good job of it either. My images straight from the camera always need work on them, but at least it's my work and not Canons automated alterations.

[Ollie]

Cheers Graham, I will definitely set all mine to 0 tomorrow and see if I can make a better job than the camera itself does. I always have to make some adjustments to every photo I take regarding colour sharpness contrast etc so might as well go the whole hog. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say and it's not as though it can't be put back to where it was if I'm not happy with the results.
Roger