Hummingbird and fall leaves...

[TamiAz]

My mom has a humming bird feeder hanging on her porch and it was my goal to take some pics before leaving. The sun was behind her house, so the porch was shaded. I had to bump up my ISO to use a faster shutter speed. When I cropped the pictures they ended up looking a bit noisy, especially the first one. I used my 55-300mm kit lens.

1)

2)

I took some pictures at the park and I really liked this one picture..
3)

 

[WesternGuy]

My first impressions FWIW...

#1. Slightly underexposed as there is no detail in the head, beak or throat area. Depending if you shot raw and the editor you have, you may be able to "brighten" this up a bit and bring out some of the detail - not sure.

#2. Again, I cannot see the detail in the head and throat are and if these are ruby-throated HBs, then the colour of the throat is not showing. I know that it may be a little difficult, sometimes, to capture the red colour, but it would have added a lot to these two images.

#3. A snapshot of some nice, red leaves, most of which are out of focus. It is not clear to me what the story is, that you are trying to tell to your viewer.

Hope this helps a bit...my 0.02¢.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

 

[Zrock]

Nice shot... I have been trying to get a shot of humming birds since i got my camera. Not a easy thing to do

 

[Starskream666]

 

[TamiAz]

My first impressions FWIW...

#1. Slightly underexposed as there is no detail in the head, beak or throat area. Depending if you shot raw and the editor you have, you may be able to "brighten" this up a bit and bring out some of the detail - not sure.

#2. Again, I cannot see the detail in the head and throat are and if these are ruby-throated HBs, then the colour of the throat is not showing. I know that it may be a little difficult, sometimes, to capture the red colour, but it would have added a lot to these two images.

#3. A snapshot of some nice, red leaves, most of which are out of focus. It is not clear to me what the story is, that you are trying to tell to your viewer.

Hope this helps a bit...my 0.02¢.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

Thank you...I did shoot RAW and I used an editor, but this was the best I could do. The bird feeder was right up against the window, I could only shoot from one place and the porch was in the shade. I had my 55-300 (5.6) lens, AF-C, spot metering, AF-Area mode (I think I should have had it on Dynamic-area AF ????), ISO at 500 (I know this is high), shutter speed 1/1250, and no flash.

What could I have done differently to get a better shot?

 

[WesternGuy]

Thank you...I did shoot RAW and I used an editor, but this was the best I could do. The bird feeder was right up against the window, I could only shoot from one place and the porch was in the shade. I had my 55-300 (5.6) lens, AF-C, spot metering, AF-Area mode (I think I should have had it on Dynamic-area AF ????), ISO at 500 (I know this is high), shutter speed 1/1250, and no flash.

What could I have done differently to get a better shot?

Camera and editor??

Not sure what to suggest, sometimes we just have to take what we can get and be happy that we got anything - this may be the case here. The only thing that stands out for me, is the use of "spot metering". Maybe partial or centre-weighted metering might have given you better colour in the bird itself - hindsight is always 20-20.

As far as the leaves are concerned, my question would be - what is the story you are trying to convey here - mood, situation, etc? As they stand, this image is just a snapshot of a bunch of red leaves that does nothing for me. Why did you take the picture? Maybe a smaller aperture would have given you a better DOF. If you were trying to get a OOF background, then you really didn't succeed (my opinion).

You might want to read up on composition. If you Google the phrase "photography composition" you will get more hits than you could read in a month, but if you look at a few of them, you will begin to see some common themes. Check this one out to start with: Advanced Composition -- Part I . This is the first of a three part set of websites on composition - the links to the following sites, numbers 2 and 3, are located at the bottom of the first and second website, respectively. The other thing I would suggest is a book by Bryan Peterson - Learning to see Creatively and another one I often recommend is also by Peterson called Understanding Exposure. Hope this helps a bit.


Cheers,


WesternGuy

 

[TamiAz]

Thank you...I did shoot RAW and I used an editor, but this was the best I could do. The bird feeder was right up against the window, I could only shoot from one place and the porch was in the shade. I had my 55-300 (5.6) lens, AF-C, spot metering, AF-Area mode (I think I should have had it on Dynamic-area AF ????), ISO at 500 (I know this is high), shutter speed 1/1250, and no flash.

What could I have done differently to get a better shot?

Camera and editor??

Not sure what to suggest, sometimes we just have to take what we can get and be happy that we got anything - this may be the case here. The only thing that stands out for me, is the use of "spot metering". Maybe partial or centre-weighted metering might have given you better colour in the bird itself - hindsight is always 20-20.

As far as the leaves are concerned, my question would be - what is the story you are trying to convey here - mood, situation, etc? As they stand, this image is just a snapshot of a bunch of red leaves that does nothing for me. Why did you take the picture? Maybe a smaller aperture would have given you a better DOF. If you were trying to get a OOF background, then you really didn't succeed (my opinion).

You might want to read up on composition. If you Google the phrase "photography composition" you will get more hits than you could read in a month, but if you look at a few of them, you will begin to see some common themes. Check this one out to start with: Advanced Composition -- Part I . This is the first of a three part set of websites on composition - the links to the following sites, numbers 2 and 3, are located at the bottom of the first and second website, respectively. The other thing I would suggest is a book by Bryan Peterson - Learning to see Creatively and another one I often recommend is also by Peterson called Understanding Exposure. Hope this helps a bit.


Cheers,


WesternGuy

Question...Does every picture have to have a story behind it??? I'm still so new and I'm playing around with exposure...I was shooting the tree with the sun behind it to see if it would come out. I just liked the way the sun was behind the leaves and the blue sky. Just trying something different and I liked the way it came out.

Thank you!!