Rate my pic photo gurus

[sierracharlie338]

How can this pic be better? I was shooting some birds around the stand yesterday and today. This morning this cardinal came by to see what was going on. I was having a hard time getting crisp images when zooming in on the birds. I have attached the pic two different ways. Does one look better than the other? Thoughts? I want to upgrade my camera body to a full frame but trying to work with that I have for now. Thanks in advance.

[IMG]DSC_0358 copy by Stephen Clarke, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Bill M]

Doesn't look bad but cropping enough to see the bird will kill any resolution. A new body isn't going to improve this photo, longer glass is needed.


I was about 20 yds. for this shot, if that much. I shot it at 560mm. About 80% of original size.

[Shane]

What Bill said^. Get closer and get a longer lens to fill the frame with your subject. And going to full frame will force you to get even closer and/or crop even more to fill the frame with your bird.

Early on, spend most of your money on lenses. Stick with a brand that has lots of lens options as well as body options that work with the same lenses. Once you build up your lens collection, you can start spending on a more expensive body. But glass is most important.

Looks like you shot this at 300mm with your Tamron lens. You just needed to be closer to the bird.

[ATX Tyler]

Between the two images, I like the top one best. The bottom one seems a bit washed out to me. One thing that I'd do to improve the photo (for my taste) is to move your subject out of the dead center of the frame with a slightly different crop, and punch up the warmer tones in the image. That's just my style, so to each their own on that. Adding a low-res version of what my edit might look like on it.

Regarding camera settings, one thing that might be affecting your image quality is the ISO. Looks like you're at ISO 4000 and a shutter speed of 1/1000. Not sure what your light conditions were like that day, but if you could get away with a slightly slower shutter speed (like 1/500 even) you could probably dial that ISO way back which helps with the image quality especially when you crop in later.

[Shane]

Autofocus settings also come into play. Looks like your camera focused on the bush, so the bird is slightly out of focus. Switch to center point focus. Then half press the shutter button (or use back button focus, if you are familiar with that) to focus the center point on the bird's eye. Then, while holding the button halfway down to keep focus, move the camera to reframe the lens to something like Bill's photo or ATX's crop, and then take the shot.

[Hunterbarton86]

Looks like a red bird on a limb

[sierracharlie338]

Thanks guys I was hoping you three would chime in as I respect all of your abilities behind the camera.

Doesn't look bad but cropping enough to see the bird will kill any resolution. A new body isn't going to improve this photo, longer glass is needed.

I was about 20 yds. for this shot, if that much. I shot it at 560mm. About 80% of original size.

This was as close as I could get with this particular instance. I was in a box blind deer hunting and obviously not seeing anything! I understand what you are saying and will keep that in mind in the future. Looks like Ill need to start saving pennies for a longer lens also.

Between the two images, I like the top one best. The bottom one seems a bit washed out to me. One thing that I'd do to improve the photo (for my taste) is to move your subject out of the dead center of the frame with a slightly different crop, and punch up the warmer tones in the image. That's just my style, so to each their own on that. Adding a low-res version of what my edit might look like on it.

Regarding camera settings, one thing that might be affecting your image quality is the ISO. Looks like you're at ISO 4000 and a shutter speed of 1/1000. Not sure what your light conditions were like that day, but if you could get away with a slightly slower shutter speed (like 1/500 even) you could probably dial that ISO way back which helps with the image quality especially when you crop in later.

Tyler, this is what I was seeing too when I upload the pics to TBH. I feel like the linked pics have a much better resolution. The second one seems washed out like you said. I will start posting them linked like that from now on. Unfortunately I didn't have time to really mess with a lot of settings due to the subject not sticking around. I definitely need some more time behind the camera to refresh my mind on controls and hone some skills.

Autofocus settings also come into play. Looks like your camera focused on the bush, so the bird is slightly out of focus. Switch to center point focus. Then half press the shutter button (or use back button focus, if you are familiar with that) to focus the center point on the bird's eye. Then, while holding the button halfway down to keep focus, move the camera to reframe the lens to something like Bill's photo or ATX's crop, and then take the shot.

I was fighting with the focus settings for sure. I need to brush up on the back button focus as well as just spend more time behind the camera but I understand what you are saying about using the focus that way.