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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Am I doing things right? (1 Viewer)

Klant

Well-known member
Hi all!
I got my much anticipated FZ5 yesterday, and tried it out today. I've added links to the pictures that turned out fairly decent, and they're in the order "after cropping and brightness/contrast adjustment, after picture cooler 2", except for the great tit, in which I've put the unmodified picture first.

Two things I've learned today are that light is good, which isn't very easy since the sun is about 5 degrees above the horizon here in the middle of the day :/, and that maxing out the zoom isn't always a good idea.

Anyway, if you've got any suggestions to how I could make these look better, please post them :)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000781.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000782.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000783.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000784.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000791.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000792.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001120.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001121.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001122.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001130.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001131.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001132.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001311.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001312.jpg
 
Klant said:
Hi all!
I got my much anticipated FZ5 yesterday, and tried it out today. I've added links to the pictures that turned out fairly decent, and they're in the order "after cropping and brightness/contrast adjustment, after picture cooler 2", except for the great tit, in which I've put the unmodified picture first.

Two things I've learned today are that light is good, which isn't very easy since the sun is about 5 degrees above the horizon here in the middle of the day :/, and that maxing out the zoom isn't always a good idea.

Anyway, if you've got any suggestions to how I could make these look better, please post them :)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000781.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000782.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000783.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000784.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000791.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10000792.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001120.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001121.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001122.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001130.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001131.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001132.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001311.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d10/Klant/P10001312.jpg

Klant,

I'm not familiar w/ the FZ25, but just a couple of general comments: Framing looks good on all pics, so well done. I'd suggest that you try to use fill flash when the sky is bright and/or you're shooting into a background. As for the
images, if you have Photoshop you could try using the Curves tool to to brighten the images and reduce some of the contrast. I'd then use the magnetic lasso tool to highlight just the bird, invert the selection, and smooth out the background to remove some of the graininess that occurs with low-light images.

Best,

Jerry
 
The lower the sun gets in the sky, the more important it becomes to get the light behind you, or at the very least to one side. And, of course, the more light you can get the better. The brighter the light, the faster your shutter speed, and the clearer the picture.

Now, all you have to do is get the birds to cooperate by standing still while you find the ideal spot to photograph them from!

Good luck and enjoy.
 
Yeah, they're fidgety little buggers, aren't they! They surely didn't stand still for me. Do you think swans can be asked to hover?

Anyway, one thanks for the suggestions! I'll look into especially the curve tools. I was going to go out today, but it was -10 c and I have a cold :/

Also, sadly, I can't take credit for the framing. It seems to have happened automagically with picture cooler 2. I'll keep that in mind though.
 
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