I think I'm getting better

[CarlosFrazao]

hey guys hope all is well got a few picks from the weekend everything was kind of hiding away lol, birds are missing in action as most have migrated, got a few shots but everything was so far away... Once again CC is very welcome... Everything shot with a Nikon d7200 and sigma 150-600 Contemporary


Beautiful hornbill one of my favorite birds

Mid afternoon shot of mr elephant eating his greens

African spoon bill catching himself some early morning breakfast

Pied king fisher sitting of far in the distance looking for his next meal.

 

[Watchful]

Your title made me think of Monty Pythons 'bring out yer dead' skit form Holy Grail.
I like 1. ok, the rest need some love.

 

[jcdeboever]

Nice set.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[CarlosFrazao]

Your title made me think of Monty Pythons 'bring out yer dead' skit form Holy Grail.
I like 1. ok, the rest need some love.

Lol thanks man number one is my favorite shot aswell really didn't take much photos as I was driving with the wife lol.. Please do tell me what I could do to improve in the others. Thanks

 

[dxqcanada]

Need more environment in some of the shots ... sometimes a closeup doesn't make for a better shot.

Ummm, where are you driving around ?

 

[JacaRanda]

Nice. #1 for the win!

 

[Watchful]

Since it's an African Elephant, I'd guess Africa or a zoo.

 

[CarlosFrazao]

Need more environment in some of the shots ... sometimes a closeup doesn't make for a better shot.

Ummm, where are you driving around ?

hey man yeah we went to a nature reserve for the day and unfortunately one can't walk around as we have lions,cheetah,leopard,hyena,wild dogs,rhino, buffalo,elephant and so the list goes on of animals that would just love to kill you haha

i wish we had places like the guys in the states where one could just go walking around and look for birds and animals and so on, but unfortunately i stay in south africa and all these places are govermently run and our government is up to #### so it isn't safe for us to go anywhere as you will be killed for anything you have on you. its a way of life here in south africa where you just aint safe anywhere you go anymore and it takes the fun out of photography a lot...

 

[dannylightning]

those are really nice.

the first one is really good as it is.

the elephant photo, its a bit bright..

the 3rd one is also really good but i would bring down the highlights on that one a bit.

the last one could use some adjustment of the shadows to bring out more detail, you cant really see its eye.. over all its a nice shot..

 

[Derrel]

Need more environment in some of the shots ... sometimes a closeup doesn't make for a better shot.

Ummm, where are you driving around ?

And, the opposite can be true as well...in the elephant photo, I think there was too much 'environment' above the head, and not quite enough environment below the feeding trunk. This image also appears too ruddy, too warm, perhaps too magenta. I think this needs some cropped off the top, and a re-proceessing effort.

GREAT timing on the spoonbill with his caught fish! I am certain that a very subtle edge burn would vastly elevate the impact of this already solid capture...just darken the edges a little bit.

I like the pied kingfisher shot in terms of the way you've sused foreground/background separation, as well as how the backdrop in rendered as a bokeh zone, but the lack of eyeball visibility hurts this: I suppose the best practices idea might involve a Better Beamer flash used to give a little fill, and the eyeball catchlight. On the other hand, maybe this could be made into more of a silhouetted image?

The kingfisher shot exemplified lower light level back-lighting or side-lighting issues; without any shadow-side fill, the image really comes down more to the HIGHLIGHTED background...the bird or animal is almost secondary, and the environment becomes the area it;'s necessary to show with the best exposure; this shot does neither the backdrop or the bird a lot of favors. Maybe process this again, and darken the bird, and add vibrance to the highlights?

 

[Derrel]

[/ATTACH]

On the roseate spoonbill photo there was a small, rounded, darkish dot on the rump that I felt looked to be a sensor dust spot, so I cloned out the dust spot on the bird's rump, and also cloned out the flying bee that was just to the right of the bird: at this small size, I think the bee hurts, not helps.

Your original file had very low sharpening: I would rather see more sharpening, and more noise as well, than the softer rendering your OP was shown with,so I added as much sharpening as I thought it could take. I thought perhaps a more blue-sky-day look would also be something to look into so I changed the hue slightly, and I painted some clarity onto the water with Lightoom, and also added some very subtle edge darkening, and then a little strip of edge darkening across the central 75% of the very top edge of the shot.

 

[CarlosFrazao]

@Derrel wow thanks for all your advice bud, what i noticed now is i haven't even opened the lid on photoshop and lightroom and have loads to learn thanks a lot for all the informative advice i will take it all to heart and use it in the future to try and improve my photos.. currently around 9 months into the whole photography game so still loads to learn and all this awesome advice i really appreciate from yourself and everyone else that helps me out

 

[ZombiesniperJr]

Nice shot really like #1