Noob looking for advice

[IJE3]

I just started 2 weeks ago. I have read a lot and learned a ton in a short amount of time and I am loving the experience and I want to continue growing. I am looking for general advice. I am using a Nikon 3100 with a 55-200mm lens. Here are two pictures from yesterday.
The first image of just the single duck was f/14, ISO 400, 1/25th, and @175mm. The second picture was f/14, ISO 100, 1/20th and @200mm.
Please help me out, thanks.

 

[weepete]

Way too slow shutter speed for a moving subject. 1/250th or 1/500th would have been better. Also with the single duck there's no reason to be at f14. F8 would have been a much better choice as you don't need a huge amount of Depth Of Field for this (and could have boosed your shutter speed up a bit). It also looks like you could have used a stop or two of Exposure Compensation to stop blowing out the whites on the bird.

 

[IJE3]

Thanks for the advice. This pond is very close to my house so I'm probably going to reshoot it several times. I'll try to take it f/8 next time and look for the difference. I'll take it back to LR and try to correct the exposure so the white isn't blown out. Thanks again

 

[weepete]

No problems mate. Generally for widlife I err on the side of too fast rather than too slow. I tend to use a single focus point, continuous autofocus. I'll spot meter on a bird or something with a similar tonal value and set my exposure from there.

Personally speaking I don't worry too much about background exposure too much if I'm shooting wildlife. IMO its preferable to get a good exposure on your subject than a good overall exposure. So when shooting whites against shade I'll try not to clip the higlights, blacks against lights I try not to clip the shadows. It can get pretty fast and furious shooting sometimes but it's a great way to learn how to quickly change your settings.

 

[Donde1]

For the second one I would wait until the geese swim away from that orange and black floating thing for a more natural look.

 

[WesternGuy]

First, welcome to the Forum - you will find a lot of folks here quite willing to help, but be ready for the occasional very pointed comments.

Just for the record, these are all Canada Geese - not a duck in sight.

A couple of points - it would be nice if you could number your images when you post them - makes it easier for a reviewer to refer to them.

The first one looks almost like a flash was used as the bird appears to be slightly overexposed. I am not sure what metering you used on this one, but for single subjects like this, I often use spot metering to make sure that the exposure on the subject is good. I don't really care about the background as it will often be blown out anyway.

The second shot is just too cluttered. When I saw it, I asked myself - " What is the subject in this image?" - I really didn't see one, except a lot of random birds and an orange object of some sort, that probably shouldn't even be in the final picture. Remember, it is okay NOT to take a picture.

If you are just starting out, you will want to read up on composition, including things like the rule of thirds and other aspects of image composition. You might want to check out this site - Photography Composition Articles Library . Ron Bigelow has three definitive web articles on composition - the first one is here - Advanced Composition -- Part I . You will find the link to the successive articles at the end of each site. As well, you can find an incredible amount of stuff by simply googling "photography composition".

There is also an excellent site on bird photography here - Secrets of Digital Bird Photography . More sites dealing with bird and wildlife photography can be found using Google and the appropriate search criteria.

Hope this helps. If you have any further questions, post back and someone will be sure to answer them.

WesternGuy

 

[Richichi]

Yup Canadian geese as WesternGuy has pointed out [emoji2] all good advice above and I would just like to add, learning how to see and use light will be your greatest asset imho, and it will take work. There is a book I would recommend to begin with, Light Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting Paperback - Amazon carries it for about $35, probably the best bang for your buck in all of photography although not an easy read. Good Luck!


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