First shots

[Joe stockwell]

Now i am jsut starrting out as a nature photographer, i have been birdwatching since i could hold a pair of binoculars, i am now sixteen! so i can now trust myself with more expensive kit i bought a canon EOS 30D + 17-85mm lens and other various equipment, i have recently purchased a Sigma 170-500 wich does crop up to 300-800! after a slow start and some dodgy images im seeing a huge diference im my shots if whoever reads this could check out my photos and give me feedback i would be most greatfull as im the only birdwatcher in my family im the onlyone who can apreciate the true beaty of birds
Thanks Joe

[AndyB]

Hi Joe, some really nice work there. Here's the link to Joe's Album (http://surfbirds.com/albums/showgallery.php?ppuser=785&cat=500). I especially liked the Water Rail - a difficult species and nicely captured - I also liked the Robin and Goldfinch by the water. Do you have a hide near a pond?

[Joe stockwell]

Its not quite a pond its a small overgrown feeder stream to a lake near my hous so i s....ed it out a little and it turned into a real haven for bird life but i dont need a hide i just sit next to a tree and nothing seems to mind

[Colin Key]

Hi Joe, not bad for starters; like Andy, I also liked the Water Rail (could have taken a bit of sharpening). I think that all of your images are being uploaded much too small (in terms of file size). It would be useful if you could add some tech information on camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc) and what post-processing you have done. Without this it is not possible to make constructive suggestions.

Stick at it - it is addictive, and you will find yourself improving by leaps and bounds.

Colin

[Joe stockwell]

ok will take into consideration the exposure times ect my post proscessing skills are limited and i dont really have the software to resize with the same picture clarity i would like. as you can imagine the pics look a lot better on the pc than they do on the net! although my more recent photos are a little better they still are a little small ok no limit on res on member gallery i find it very dificult to sustain image clarity and a good size

[AndyB]

I think fellow member John Robinson is a bit of an expert on pool photography and might write something up on this technique. Keep up the good work!

[Colin Key]

ok will take into consideration the exposure times ect my post proscessing skills are limited and i dont really have the software to resize with the same picture clarity i would like. as you can imagine the pics look a lot better on the pc than they do on the net! although my more recent photos are a little better they still are a little small ok no limit on res on member gallery i find it very dificult to sustain image clarity and a good size

Joe, I would be interested to know which software you are using. I presume that if you bought the 30D (a very capable camera) new then you will have the Canon software (DPP, EOS Utility, etc) on disc. I wonder also whether you are shooting in RAW or JPEG format?

If you are prepared to spend a bit of time processing your images than I can assure you that RAW is the only way to go (get hold of "Understanding RAW Photography" by Andy Rouse). I use Canon DPP to convert from RAW to 18bit TIFF files which I then work on in Photoshop Elements (the "grown up" version of Photoshop - CS3 - is very expensive and rather an overkill for my own purposes). Since I use a Mac rather than a PC for editing there is no point in my giving precise actions, but I do intend doing so for some people on another forum and might post my detailed workflow here when I get round to it. Suffice to say that I make adjustments to "Levels" (highlights, shadows and midtones) "Colour Saturation", "Noise Reduction" and finally sharpen using "Unsharp Mask". I don't use "Save for Web" as this reduces IQ a lot, but just "Save As" (and use highest quality JPEG). I would normally save different copies for different purposes, such as a maximum dimension and file size for anything I want to print, but anything I am going to post gets saved as 800 pixels max dimension - this normally gives fairly good quality for images posted on forums such as this. The advantage of shooting in RAW and converting to TIFF is that, unlike JPEG, these are lossless formats and do not degrade like JPEG each time you save the file, and of course with RAW you have the equivalent of a negative with the maximum amount of digital information which remains unchanged (so you can always go back to square one and start again as your skills improve or as more sophisticated software is published).

Just remember that you will never get the same advice from two different people, even using the same software, as there are different ways of achieving more or less the same result. Add in the numerous different processing packages (Paintshop Pro, Lightroom, etc) and you have even more options and opinions.

One thing you must never do is use the "Auto Adjust" facilities on any of these processing packages - they might work for landscapes and portraits but they do not work on birds.

I am no expert and I am constantly going back to "re-do" images as I learn new tricks. It is all very daunting to begin with but, like photography itself, practice makes you better. And, of course, you have to have a good "image capture" in the first place (especially in terms of exposure) since this processing software cannot work miracles!!

Cheers,

Colin

[Joe stockwell]

most of the time i use ulead photoimpact, im not really a fan of photoshop but i would use it if it improved my post procsesing, i do realise that shooting raw would be the best way but i find for the moment simplicity wins out so i shoot high quality jpeg most of my images dont need a lot of cropping which can be a problem because the image size is so much bigger therefore making resizing a little more difficult.
and i have to say that john robinson has been a great help for resizing images to post on europe common gallery.
thanks to every one who has helped so far im going to keep on shooting and hopefully improve along the way keep checking out my photos im sure they'll get better
joe.

[Joe stockwell]

colin
your advice has been brilliant and i have taken it all on board here is an example which im very happy with because these things are normaly very shy
http://surfbirds.com/albums/showphoto.php?photo=5605&size=big&cat=500

[Colin Key]

Nice one Joe, I have made a comment on the photo in your gallery.

Colin

[AndyB]

Yes, nice shot Joe.

[john robinson]

Joe
I use Paint Shop Pro 7 all the time. I some times use PSP 9 to use the "fill in flash" tool (Grteat for bringing out the dark bits ! )and also Neat image if there is a bit of a noise problem
All I ever use apart from cropping is the Resizing facility and brightness and contrast( mainly because I shoot in low contrast at high ISO speeds all the time - (I have my camera permanently set on 800 iso f8 all the time in the winter)., and gamma control.
You shouldn't need much more. I have several thousand examples to load up to my gallery when i get around to it !
Cheers
John