Wondering..

[bambang]

Hi Guys, I am newbie.. please help to comment for my improvement

http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc390/Bam_Bang/IMG_1392-1.jpg

1. In which area is critique or feedback to be given?
Exposure, composition and overall image

2. What were you hoping to achieve with this image?
To get a sharper moving objects

3. Under what circumstance was the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
under sunlight, i see a very cute bird wondering around

4. Thread-starter's personal thoughts about the image.
The bird's body a bit blur, auto focus more on its head.

 

[quizesilver]

Hi Guys, I am newbie.. please help to comment for my improvement

1. In which area is critique or feedback to be given?
Exposure, composition and overall image

2. What were you hoping to achieve with this image?
To get a sharper moving objects

3. Under what circumstance was the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
under sunlight, i see a very cute bird wondering around

4. Thread-starter's personal thoughts about the image.
The bird's body a bit blur, auto focus more on its head.


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btw juz helping ts load this pic.

 

[derrickder]

+
Good attempt on the background blur
Yep the bird is quite cute

-
Bird not sharp when it should be due to bright sunlight, you can freeze the action better
Should focus on the bird's eyes and not on beak
A better composition would be to place the bird off center.

 

[bambang]

Thanks Derrickder ....really appreciate it.I'm still new with my camera 550D and sigma lens 28-300 ..Is the lens suitable for bird shooting?I'll try to find out more on the function.

 

[derrickder]

Thanks Derrickder ....really appreciate it.I'm still new with my camera 550D and sigma lens 28-300 ..Is the lens suitable for bird shooting?I'll try to find out more on the function.

Hey you're welcome.

Yes it is suitable due to the long range of the lens. But you need practice in focusing and composition. Keep shooting! The 550D is also a very capable camera so no worries.

 

[bambang]

thxs for the advice bro will take note:thumbsup:

 

[derrickder]

thxs for the advice bro will take note:thumbsup:

No prob. Happy new year to you!

 

[kei1309]

hi bambang. saw your settings. i'm not a birder, but i suppose the settings could be set better?

your settings are: 1/500s f6.3 ISO400 and EV of +2

the bird's body is blur/oof due to the aperture/focal length usage.

i'm not sure if bright sun-light causes images to be not sharp. but i suppose an image that's over-exposed will be deemed so because the edges are blurred and blended into the bright light, which i don't think it's the case here.

here it's more like the the bird moved after focus was locked and before the shutter was released. hence the head appears also slightly OOF.
your shutter speed of 1/500s would have been able to freeze a little bird hopping, so it's not an issue of "freezing the moment better".

i think you should use a smaller aperture (larger f number) when shooting the bird, as it appears to be quite small in real life. when the chance appears again, try shooting at f11 or f16 to see the difference.

anyways, composition-wise, you can use this shot, but do some cropping off the left and top, as the background blur's pretty harsh and distracting. and try to get the whole bird in if you can.

my two cents

happy shooting!

 

[bambang]

Hi Kei, thanks for the advise ,do you mean 1/500s f11-16 ISO400?

 

[gundamseed84]

Hi, not a bad shot..capturing such a small bird up close at 300mm is not easy.

Opinions:
1. Body blur is not critical since to me the main subject is the head, especially the red line along the eye.

2. I like the bird's pose, a pity that the leg is cut off a little.

3. The eye is alright in terms of sharpness though more is better. Not easy to capture tack sharp in the eyes for something that is so small.

4. Try a square tight crop on the bird or at least crop off a little on the left and leave some space in the direction the bird is looking.

5. Higher aperture settings might not be the best solution: Higher aperture with other settings same means that your shutter speed will drop which may increase chance of handshake blur if handheld. The shutter speed might not be fast enough to freeze the bird's movement (esp small birds). Also the dof is higher means the grass at the background will be more distracting. If maintain the shutter speed means increase the ISO, which increases distracting noise (depending on your body).

6. If you do simple post editing, you may want to experiment with the exposure, contrast etc to see if you can bring out the texture of its feathers more clearly. Can see some texture but more might be better as they seem fluffy

Just my opinions. The bird is cute..where is it from? Singapore or overseas?

For birding 300mm is not enough in general based on my personal experience. For very big birds like huge herons or hornbills 300mm is alright but smaller birds especially those always hang around high up in the trees, I don't think even 400mm is enough. That's why pros invest in tens of thousands in getting the big bazooka lens of 500mm f4, 600mm f4 or maybe even 800mm f5.6 ones to capture close and high quality shots. However for beginning interest you can use your zoom lens and with some luck birds will come close to you to capture good shots. Alternative is to use 1.4x teleconvertor for extra reach but I doubt they will still produce good results with your sigma lens.

Visit the WORLD OF NATURE section, many birders share their pictures with some info on their equipment. Happy birding.

 

[bambang]

Hi guys, thanks for advise

I try to edit as per your advise to crop left and top. I took this photo at Japanese garden.

 

[kei1309]

very cute! haha. noticed you lowered the exposure too. reminds me of chicken little.