I'm still trying to put the advice into practice. Although today I had one of those instant chance point click and hope shots. These shoots for me result in a frame with no subject nine times out of ten.
Cuckmere Haven E Sussex today.
Canon 350D handheld 500mm 1/500sec f9 ISO200
Image untouched.
Comments and critique most welcome.
Thank you
Barry
Posted by Andy Astbury on April 1, 2007 at 9:13 PM
Hi Barry - I think for a lot of folk - including me - these shots fail more than they work
Most times you follow the subject in the vf then stop the minute you release the shutter - hence they are always too far forward in the frame.
Personally I'd have gone with more shutter speed and forsaken the f9 dof - a 500th with a 500mm handheld is a struggle and the 350 has a 1.3 or 1.5 form factor too doesn't it - so a 1000th or less would have netted a better result possibly.
The geese would look better higher in the frame and in the right half the frame so they have space to fly into.
The tongue on the lower goose makes it for me though!!
Sorry guy's
I'm going to sound a complete plonker but it's the only way I'm going to learn can someone tell me what "PP" is please? Most references I can work out but this one could be one of three in my mind hence my question.
Not a stupid question at all - Post Processing Barry. I agree with Andy's advice re: sacrificing your aperture for a higher shutter speed. This would also blur the BG a bit more as well. I think for flight shots, the faster the better, to a point. Then you can get the arty wing blur when you've sussed out flight photography a bit more. I had a brief try with flight shots over the winter but didn't get many images, but learnt loads by posting on here and getting critique-d! If you have pots of cash, you could always attend Jim Neiger's Flight photography School..... and you could always take me as well
A bit of post processing would improve this image IMO.
Posted by Andy Astbury on April 3, 2007 at 3:17 AM
...........take me too PLEASE
Taken the liberty of changing the image a bit.
VERY ROUGH cloning bottom and left and a bit of shadow/highlight change - does it work for you Barry??
It could do with even more on the left to bring your original frame size back but you get the idea?
Thanks Andy the difference is remarkable. Can I just mention that my posting was an untouched original point and shoot the chance flyby was so quick. The luck being the settings were in place on the camera. As far as PP is concerned my trial Adobe lightroom ran out the day before. I'm awaiting the disks.
I seem to be full of questions, but so far I have concluded the knowledge in respect of camera settings is vital then the PP is yet another art to be mastered in its own right.
My questions: Does the type of laptop or PC screen make a significant difference as I'm inclined to think it does. What type is recommended? I guess we all have our individual visual interpretations which is the great challenge enjoyed by us all.
All the comments and critique on every posting I read on the forum is really so useful I'm very pleased I found the site and joined.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge.
Barry
Posted by Andy Astbury on April 3, 2007 at 5:11 AM
Hi Barry - it CAN make a difference - believe me.
I'd love to be able to afford a Waycom panel but money is not that common in my house so I have to stick with the old Sony HiCon CRT which works very well as long as theres a decent card to drive it.
The only prob with my CRT is that sometimes it burns a bit hotter and sometimes a bit cooler so the gamma does tend to fluctuate very slightly - I have to recalibrate it every so often.
But on the whole as long as your display is 1024 by 768 or higher and your card is outputting 32bit true colour you should be in the ball park.
I use it to preview images for sharpness, then go to the image file and open direct in CS2 via CamRaw but when Raw opens I Alt-click the open button - this bypasses CamRaws funny lit image changes and opens the true raw file.
But hey, you just keep taking the images Barry - thats the IMPORTANT bit - all this fancy PP just enhances the pic but won't make silk purses out of pigs ears.
Don't know if you've already done so but you can get some really useful info from the 'birds as art' newsletters - visit http://www.birdsasart.com and register free for the monthly bulletin - the whole site is by Arty Morris and is a mine of info.
All the best Barry
Regards
Andy
Posted by Andy Astbury on April 3, 2007 at 2:12 PM
Hi Barry - it CAN make a difference - believe me.
I'd love to be able to afford a Waycom panel but money is not that common in my house so I have to stick with the old Sony HiCon CRT which works very well as long as theres a decent card to drive it.
The only prob with my CRT is that sometimes it burns a bit hotter and sometimes a bit cooler so the gamma does tend to fluctuate very slightly - I have to recalibrate it every so often.
But on the whole as long as your display is 1024 by 768 or higher and your card is outputting 32bit true colour you should be in the ball park.
I use it to preview images for sharpness, then go to the image file and open direct in CS2 via CamRaw but when Raw opens I Alt-click the open button - this bypasses CamRaws funny lit image changes and opens the true raw file.
But hey, you just keep taking the images Barry - thats the IMPORTANT bit - all this fancy PP just enhances the pic but won't make silk purses out of pigs ears.
Don't know if you've already done so but you can get some really useful info from the 'birds as art' newsletters - visit http://www.birdsasart.com and register free for the monthly bulletin - the whole site is by Arty Morris and is a mine of info.
Discussion
11 repliesCuckmere Haven E Sussex today.
Canon 350D handheld 500mm 1/500sec f9 ISO200
Image untouched.
Comments and critique most welcome.
Thank you
Barry
Most times you follow the subject in the vf then stop the minute you release the shutter - hence they are always too far forward in the frame.
Personally I'd have gone with more shutter speed and forsaken the f9 dof - a 500th with a 500mm handheld is a struggle and the 350 has a 1.3 or 1.5 form factor too doesn't it - so a 1000th or less would have netted a better result possibly.
The geese would look better higher in the frame and in the right half the frame so they have space to fly into.
The tongue on the lower goose makes it for me though!!
Hope this helps Barry
Regards
Andy
Keep it up team.
Tim
Cheers
Nick
John
Aberdeen
I'm going to sound a complete plonker but it's the only way I'm going to learn can someone tell me what "PP" is please? Most references I can work out but this one could be one of three in my mind hence my question.
Thanks
Barry
A bit of post processing would improve this image IMO.
Taken the liberty of changing the image a bit.
VERY ROUGH cloning bottom and left and a bit of shadow/highlight change - does it work for you Barry??
It could do with even more on the left to bring your original frame size back but you get the idea?
Regards
Andy
I seem to be full of questions, but so far I have concluded the knowledge in respect of camera settings is vital then the PP is yet another art to be mastered in its own right.
My questions: Does the type of laptop or PC screen make a significant difference as I'm inclined to think it does. What type is recommended? I guess we all have our individual visual interpretations which is the great challenge enjoyed by us all.
All the comments and critique on every posting I read on the forum is really so useful I'm very pleased I found the site and joined.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge.
Barry
I'd love to be able to afford a Waycom panel but money is not that common in my house so I have to stick with the old Sony HiCon CRT which works very well as long as theres a decent card to drive it.
The only prob with my CRT is that sometimes it burns a bit hotter and sometimes a bit cooler so the gamma does tend to fluctuate very slightly - I have to recalibrate it every so often.
But on the whole as long as your display is 1024 by 768 or higher and your card is outputting 32bit true colour you should be in the ball park.
Lightroom..............ooooooooooooo...............emmmmmmmmmmmm........
I use it to preview images for sharpness, then go to the image file and open direct in CS2 via CamRaw but when Raw opens I Alt-click the open button - this bypasses CamRaws funny lit image changes and opens the true raw file.
But hey, you just keep taking the images Barry - thats the IMPORTANT bit - all this fancy PP just enhances the pic but won't make silk purses out of pigs ears.
Don't know if you've already done so but you can get some really useful info from the 'birds as art' newsletters - visit http://www.birdsasart.com and register free for the monthly bulletin - the whole site is by Arty Morris and is a mine of info.
All the best Barry
Regards
Andy
I'd love to be able to afford a Waycom panel but money is not that common in my house so I have to stick with the old Sony HiCon CRT which works very well as long as theres a decent card to drive it.
The only prob with my CRT is that sometimes it burns a bit hotter and sometimes a bit cooler so the gamma does tend to fluctuate very slightly - I have to recalibrate it every so often.
But on the whole as long as your display is 1024 by 768 or higher and your card is outputting 32bit true colour you should be in the ball park.
Lightroom..............ooooooooooooo...............emmmmmmmmmmmm........
I use it to preview images for sharpness, then go to the image file and open direct in CS2 via CamRaw but when Raw opens I Alt-click the open button - this bypasses CamRaws funny lit image changes and opens the true raw file.
But hey, you just keep taking the images Barry - thats the IMPORTANT bit - all this fancy PP just enhances the pic but won't make silk purses out of pigs ears.
Don't know if you've already done so but you can get some really useful info from the 'birds as art' newsletters - visit http://www.birdsasart.com and register free for the monthly bulletin - the whole site is by Arty Morris and is a mine of info.
All the best Barry
Regards
Andy