Frustrated and Concerned. This is the best my camera can do?

[bumpylemon]

Im pretty sure this is user error. I am not naive to think I know anything about what I am doing. But also spending 800 bucks on a camera should yield better quality pics. My camera does take great close ups and other pics...but i just went out and snapped over 100 pics of some wild turkeys no more than 30 yards away....i snapped on manuel, auto, action, portrait....everything...is this the best my Nikon D3100 55-200mm lens can do? some pointers and suggestions are very much needed and welcomed.

this image isnt that bad now that i look at it.

 

[Bram]

What do you want to achieve? First off is the 55-200mm a VR lens? If it's not go return it and get the VR version, if it is the VR version you're doing something wrong. You mentioned you were 30 yards away, that's pretty far forthe 200mm if i'm not mistaken, shouldn't be this bad though.

 

[bumpylemon]

no its not the VR. i didn't get that package. i cannot return it. i was trying to achieve just quality images. not national geographic pictures lol. just good clear quality.

 

[bumpylemon]

maybe i should look into a better zoom lens.

 

[Light Artisan]

I always try to be at 1/500th for anything wildlife, I don't care if they are standing still or not. Looks like you were at 1/200th, which should be fine unless they were moving around. You could also bump up your ISO, seeing as these were shot at 100 ISO you had room to move with that camera to get the shutter speed higher.

Last, expose better for the subject - these look a little underexposed to me. You can use exposure compensation to make this tast easier and automatic in Aperture Priority mode (which these were shot in).

 

[Light Artisan]

not national geographic pictures
just good clear quality.

What's the difference?

 

[heyjoe]

I don't think they're terrible. My best advice: just keep shooting!

 

[bumpylemon]

I always try to be at 1/500th for anything wildlife, I don't care if they are standing still or not. Looks like you were at 1/200th, which should be fine unless they were moving around. You could also bump up your ISO, seeing as these were shot at 100 ISO you had room to move with that camera to get the shutter speed higher.

Last, expose better for the subject - these look a little underexposed to me. You can use exposure compensation to make this tast easier and automatic in Aperture Priority mode (which these were shot in).

thanks. i just get to excited and start snapping. its hard to remember everything when its spur of the moment. now im a little disappointed with having a non VR 200mm lens. what do i do with it? is it always gonna take crappy pics? would a tripod help with the movement thus creating better pics?

 

[nonamexx]

What exactly were you expecting? More sharpness? More contrast? More vivid or more realistic colours? Or maybe increased DOF? I think in all these pictures, one factor I notice is the slightly shallow depth-of-field which means not the entire picture is within sharp range of focus implying that your aperture was probably high (lower number).

As far as I can see, (at this resolution) there's nothing obviously wrong with the pictures other than this..

Just remember, practice makes you better. The cost of the camera doesn't matter so much except in certain extreme conditions (like low light, fast paced action etc.) These could have been taken just as well with a P & S camera and I wouldn't notice the difference.

DSLR isn't a magic tool I guess. Have seen hundreds of images on Flickr, it's hard to figure out which is taken by a DSLR or which by a P & S without referring to the EXIF info as quality varies so much depending on the conditions, the skill of the photographer and obviously the settings used to take the picture.

Picture quality is just one aspect of SLR photography. There are tons of other functionality that allows you to explore composition and creative photography in a (D)SLR camera compared to the P & S variety.

 

[Boomn4x4]

The first one looks like a definate case of camera shake. At 200mm, that isn't uncommon. Using better, more secure camera hold techniques... arms in against your body, solid stance with legs far enough apart, and good balance on both feet .... can solve a lot of this. Adding a tripod even better. When shooting at long focal lengts, you want to keep the camera as steady as possible. A VR lens will help, but it isn't necessary.

Camera shake gets worse the more you zoom in. A good rule of thumb is that you want to be AT LEAST at a shutter speed equal to your focal length.... in this case 1/200th would be the aboslute minimum you should be shooting at or you WILL see camera shake. Bad posture, or a bad grip can make this even worse.

 

[heyjoe]

I always try to be at 1/500th for anything wildlife, I don't care if they are standing still or not. Looks like you were at 1/200th, which should be fine unless they were moving around. You could also bump up your ISO, seeing as these were shot at 100 ISO you had room to move with that camera to get the shutter speed higher.

Last, expose better for the subject - these look a little underexposed to me. You can use exposure compensation to make this tast easier and automatic in Aperture Priority mode (which these were shot in).

thanks. i just get to excited and start snapping. its hard to remember everything when its spur of the moment. now im a little disappointed with having a non VR 200mm lens. what do i do with it? is it always gonna take crappy pics? would a tripod help with the movement thus creating better pics?

Sell your lens on craigslist or eBay and get the VR

 

[atabrem]

i honestly believe, that if you shot in AP mode this is the reason.. if you switch to manual perhaps you'll acheive the look your going for since you can control what you want it to look like. also are you shooting in RAW format? if you are and havn't figured it out yet, raw format does not sharpen images, you need to manually sharpen in PS. also the shadows are extremely blue, perhaps play with your WB on your camera or use a grey card.

 

[bumpylemon]

should i just keep the ISO on automatic?

 

[Bram]

Sell the non VR lens and buy the VR version they are like $130.00 on Clist.

 

[RealityCaptured]

Don't get frustrated, just shoot all the time and eventually you'll become more accustomed to what works and what doesn't. I'm still new to photography so I'm sure others will have more to say, but here's my .02.

1:
The problem here is focus, which is what you choose. Autofocus picks up on things, but in the end you have to make sure it has picked up on the right things. The bird's rear is in focus, but I doubt you wanted that as the subject

2:
With this photo the downside is the crop. Since the subject is looking left, the photo should be cropped so that there is more space on the left and the subject is more towards the right. This way it gives space for the subject to look. If the turkey were looking towards the right in this photo it would look much better.

Other than that, I would play with it more in post. What are you using for software (if anything)?

3:
Nothing bad to say here. Is this the quality you're hoping for? Do you feel better about this shot than the others? If that's the case, then look at your shots like this and don't beat yourself down.