3 for C&C plz

[Stormchase]

Im looking to see what others might have done different. I dont have a tripod with me this month. these were taken hand held at sunrise.
1.
this was shot in AV mode at f/10 , 1/400sec, iso 500 at 300mm. I added 1 point to saturation contrast and sharpness. It looks warm but its close to true color that morning

2.
this was also in AV mode (i believe) i went for more speed so dropped it to f/6.3, 1/1000, iso 400 and this is shot at 75mm. I did about the same PP to this one.

3.
This one was taken last month. I keep looking back at it for some reason. maybe because im freaked out about spiders and there are alot of these banana spiders here in florida. this day i was trying to work on my DOF and still didnt seem to get the whole spider in focus. I ended up with using f/5 to keep a little speed. 1/500 iso 100.
This was over the water so i couldnt get a much better angle. I would have liked the face but atleast he was eating a dragon fly...

All C&C welcome! Help me learn!

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

1. A CPOL would have really made this image pop. That aside, I would try and cloan out the reeds left foreground, very distracting, and maybe crop in more tightly on just a few of the birds, especially the fellow stretchin his wings.

2. Nice; once again, the image screams for a polarizing filter.

3. DoF in macro/close-up work is thin. Very thin; often 1mm or less. The key is to focus on the most interesing point. From a compositional standpoint, the fronts of anything are generally more interesting than the backs, and the large green areas (leaves?) are rather distracting. I think a slight change in position might have got you a really top-notch image.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[Stormchase]

CPOL polerizing filter? I have a cheap one I got for around 20 bucks but not sure if I like it. There seems to be issues getting it tuned in. I'll keep it in mind. I see how the sky is very bland. Would you use a cpol anytime your outside as a rule?

 

[Stormchase]

Cloneing is takeing objects out of a picture seamless? Or close to seamless? I don't know cloneing and I do not have any softwere except for the freebee that came with my camera. I'm looking at PS elements tho.

 

[Neb]

yeah cloning is basically copying one part of the image so you can 'paint' that copy over the part you don't like. It's tricky if you've never done it before but once you learn it... you can do amazing things with it.

 

[Inst!nct]

my favorite was the second picture, i like the transition between the water, the fields, and then then birds, i felt the first one would be improved if it was a bit closer however, i feel since the subject is the birds, it could be better more in

 

[Stormchase]

Thanks everyone. Cloneing sounds usefull! Can't wait to get software.