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How to improve (1 Viewer)

daniel o

Well-known member
I use a Panasonic DMC FZ200 and I don't use photoshop or any editors besides the camera's built-in 'creative mode' which allows cropping and changing colours, e.g: low key, one-point colour and expressive. Any advice is greatly appreciated and please don't sugar-coat anything as I need to know how to improve,thanks :t:

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/100476181@N03/14020040244/

P.S - sorry about putting my flickr link here but one of my photos wont show as it's too big
 
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The Exif data is stripped from these photos which means we cannot tell on which settings they were taken. I don't know your camera, so I don't know what it's capable of. But to me it seems there is motion blur in all images, potentially suggesting the speed wasn't high enough.

Andrea
 
Daniel, post processing will help the shots that you have posted above - even if you only use it for your "best" shots because it can be time consuming. Lightroom is a good package but maybe too expensive for you.
A very good alternative is Photoshop Elements, (a cut down version of PS), it has most of what people need and only costs around £50 and with the on line tutorials it is quite quick to learn at the basic level.
The "Guided" section is useful as it lets you try what the application "thinks" is needed ...... without it being permanent, if that's what you wish.
Factors like White Balance, shadows and highlights are easy to correct and you can add sharpness and saturation.

I also think that there are "free" basic editing packages that you can download from the web

PP is quite important in the processing of your images and can correct many things at the move of a "slider"

Good luck
 
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Daniel, post processing will help the shots that you have posted above - even if you only use it for your "best" shots because it can be time consuming. Lightroom is a good package but maybe too expensive for you.
A very good alternative is Photoshop Elements, (a cut down version of PS), it has most of what people need and only costs around £50 and with the on line tutorials it is quite quick to learn at the basic level.
The "Guided" section is useful as it lets you try what the application "thinks" is needed ...... without it being permanent, if that's what you wish.
Factors like White Balance, shadows and highlights are easy to correct and you can add sharpness and saturation.

I also think that there are "free" basic editing packages that you can download from the web

PP is quite important in the processing of your images and can correct many things at the move of a "slider"

Good luck

Thanks, I will definitely consider it :t:
 
I agree with kitefarrago that all the shots look very soft. You may be shaking your camera slightly, but I think the main problem is you are using a too narrow depth of field, or you are not correctly focussing, or both.

If camera shake is a problem, the quickest fix, as KF indicated, is to use a faster shutter speed. That will require either a larger aperture or a faster ISO setting.

If depth of field is a problem, the fix is to use a smaller shutter aperture. This will require either a longer exposure (slower shutter speed) or a faster ISO setting. A smaller aperture can also compensate for slightly incorrect focusing, and will help somewhat to hide the defects in a poor lens.

The drawback with a higher ISO setting, especially in a smaller camera, is that you may see "noise" (speckling) in the image.
The main alternative to raising the ISO setting is to use a tripod or otherwise to rest the camera on an immovable object. That will allow longer exposures without introducing camera shake. Obviously, exposures longer than a quarter-second are not really an option when a fulmar is swooping by, but should be OK for the ptarmigan shots.

One other critique: you tend to put your subjects right in the center. This is understandable (easier to focus, etc) but makes your photos much less dramatic. Look up the "rule of thirds". Try to put your subject (ideally, its eye) smack-dab on one of those thirds-line intersections, while leaving a bit of space "ahead" of the bird.
 
In the first photo, it looks like the focus was on the far wing or on the water. Not bad for a fast moving pelagic with a bridge cam though.

The second photo also looks not quite in focus/a little bit of motion blur.

The last photo looks like it was taken at a high iso wiping out much of the detail.

Bird photography is hard. Try to keep your shutter speed up, and be careful about which focus point you select. Better weather would also be helpful. It seems most of these are quite overcast. Any bridge cam would struggle under these circumstances.
 
Shutter speed is king

Animals move so shutter speed is king. If you use a zoom then your shutter speed should always be faster than the length of zoom e.g. 200mm zoom at least 1/300th or better still 1/400th of a second shutter speed.

There are two ways you can increase your shutter speed. 1. Increase ISO - but you suffer more noise or 2. Reduce your aperture - from F8 say to F5.6 but your depth of field will also be reduced and you focusing will have to be spot on. As a rule focus on the eye with side on animals and between the eyes if straight on. Keep clicking.
 
Animals move so shutter speed is king. If you use a zoom then your shutter speed should always be faster than the length of zoom e.g. 200mm zoom at least 1/300th or better still 1/400th of a second shutter speed.

This rule of thumb correlates to shutter speeds required to handhold a lens with a certain focal length to avoid camera shake by the user.

To stop the action, i.e. subject movement, the required shutter speed depends on the locomotion speed of the subject. Using a a 200mm lens with 1/400s may avoid blurring of the image by camera shake and freeze the movement of a slowly walking starling, but will be by no means fast enough to freeze a flying swift or a diving falcon.

This chart may offer some idea what shutter speeds -independent from focal length- are required to stop motion. http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed-chart/http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed-chart/

Ulli
 
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