First posted picture c&c really needed!!!

Image Maker

I got a new camera for christmas. My first "real" digital, and here are two of the first bird pictures I've taken. It was a very overcast day. This first one is the first bif I've taken. (Couldn't seem to get him in focus good)

I liked the way this made him look like he was coming out of the tree branch.

Any helpful comments would be greatly appreciated-I'm still playing with all the different features.:scratch

Harryb

Welcome to Dgrin and congrats on your new camera.

You did very well shooting at 200mm with a new camera and you will do much better in the future if you invest some time.

Your shutter speed in the first shot was too slow (1/500 sec) for an eagle BIF shot. I would have tried for at least 1/800 sec. You were shooting in aperture priroity so you would have needed to open up the aperture and/or increase your ISO for the bump in shutter speed. The shot is a tad under-exposed and I would have done an EV adjustment of +0.3 on those shots.

There a tutorial here on wildlife shooting

and there's a sticky on top of this page with a lot of good info.

Hope to see more of your shots in the future.

Van Isle

Birds in Flight + overcast day = I don't think so. But I suck. Seriously, for a new guy like me, under those conditions, I say fair. W/ practice you'll learn a lot more. Read the manual about how and why your camera focuses, and you can be a bit more selective in that manner to help produce sharper shots. Bump the ISO, and need that high shutter speed mentioned earlier.

VI

Image Maker

Harryb wrote:

Welcome to Dgrin and congrats on your new camera.

You did very well shooting at 200mm with a new camera and you will do much better in the future if you invest some time.

Your shutter speed in the first shot was too slow (1/500 sec) for an eagle BIF shot. I would have tried for at least 1/800 sec. You were shooting in aperture priroity so you would have needed to open up the aperture and/or increase your ISO for the bump in shutter speed. The shot is a tad under-exposed and I would have done an EV adjustment of +0.3 on those shots.

There a tutorial here on wildlife shooting

and there's a sticky on top of this page with a lot of good info.

Hope to see more of your shots in the future.

Thanks for the advice, Harry. I will definitely do the recommended reading! Hopefully, the next time that I get the chance to see the eagles I will remember everything that I have learned or been told.:D

Image Maker

Van Isle wrote:

Birds in Flight + overcast day = I don't think so. But I suck. Seriously, for a new guy like me, under those conditions, I say fair. W/ practice you'll learn a lot more. Read the manual about how and why your camera focuses, and you can be a bit more selective in that manner to help produce sharper shots. Bump the ISO, and need that high shutter speed mentioned earlier.

VI

Unfortunately, good weather was not in the forcast for the time I had to spend with the eagles and I just had to "play" with my new toy. Thanks for the advice and comment, though.

Netgarden

Image Maker wrote:

Unfortunately, good weather was not in the forcast for the time I had to spend with the eagles and I just had to "play" with my new toy. Thanks for the advice and comment, though.

I don't shoot alot in bad weather, so it's like a whole new ball game with me too. I discovered that shooting slightly lower apertures and finding an acceptable shutterspeed is the key, which takes some quessing. I had a few turn out good that were actually showing blown out in the LCD screen, and the feathers didn't have so much dark contrast as on cloudy days. So try shooting a little on the light side.

Nice job for the first try. You will soon be addicted, ;~)

GraphyFotoz

Welcome!
Welcome to DG!
Great place to learn....I know I have picked up a lot here.

Hope you don't mind ...I took the liberty of playing with your Eagle image with CS2.
On top of getting a Digital Camera....playing with Photoshop CS2 or a Photo Editing program kinda follows hand in hand.

Here is how I woulda tweaked your Eagle shot had it been mine.
(Very nice action shot BTW!)
Crop and off centered it a bit....boosted blue sky color and highlights of the Eagle.
In the end a shot of Unsharp Mask = USM
Not perfect but you get the idea.



If you like this....email me at Jbolden3@stny.rr.com and I'll send it to you for your albums.....or you can right click and save it.

Don't like to keep others pics in my albums for any length of time.

Image Maker

GraphyFotoz wrote:

Welcome to DG!
Great place to learn....I know I have picked up a lot here.

Hope you don't mind ...I took the liberty of playing with your Eagle image with CS2.
On top of getting a Digital Camera....playing with Photoshop CS2 or a Photo Editing program kinda follows hand in hand.

Here is how I woulda tweaked your Eagle shot had it been mine.
(Very nice action shot BTW!)
Crop and off centered it a bit....boosted blue sky color and highlights of the Eagle.
In the end a shot of Unsharp Mask = USM
Not perfect but you get the idea.



If you like this....email me at Jbolden3@stny.rr.com and I'll send it to you for your albums.....or you can right click and save it.

Don't like to keep others pics in my albums for any length of time.

I don't mind a bit! That is one more thing to make up my mind on is the type of program that is the best for the money for touch-ups. I've got it copied though. Thanks for the fix job:D

Image Maker

Netgarden wrote:

I don't shoot alot in bad weather, so it's like a whole new ball game with me too. I discovered that shooting slightly lower apertures and finding an acceptable shutterspeed is the key, which takes some quessing. I had a few turn out good that were actually showing blown out in the LCD screen, and the feathers didn't have so much dark contrast as on cloudy days. So try shooting a little on the light side.

Nice job for the first try. You will soon be addicted, ;~)

Thanks, I already am addicted. My husband laughs because I take it wherever I go!!!