Nature/animal photos
Jun 28, 2014 20:28:59 #
I love taking nature/animal photos. I find myself having a difficult time finding the right balance for my photos. How do I know how to adjust my settings ? I took these photos this morning. Sometimes they were too bright or too dark or the subjects were blurry.
female merganser and chicks
female merganser and chicks
female merganser and chicks
Jun 28, 2014 20:34:54 #
Practice makes perfect. Learning to read the light requires lots of patience. Just think, in the good old film days, you'd have to wait to find out that you under/over exposed that shot you thought was fabulous. Check out Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure". It's available through Amazon.com or if you have an iPad, it's available in the book store.
Jun 28, 2014 20:47:40 #
Thanks. I take thousands of photos year. Sometimes when I think I have everything all set I find out after taking a photo Ive ben waiting a long time for didn't come out so good. Its very disappointing. Getting everything perfect is very difficult and confusing.
Jun 28, 2014 20:50:51 #
I'm just going to be shooting from the hip on this, but in the first you were just plan out of focus. It's darker because you were in the shade of the trees of the shore line.
In two your friends were in the open area where the sun was shining off the water giving you a brighter photo.
Three, along the shore line and Four in the open water area.
All are very adjustable in Post Production. The first one might need some additional work being out of focus.
In two your friends were in the open area where the sun was shining off the water giving you a brighter photo.
Three, along the shore line and Four in the open water area.
All are very adjustable in Post Production. The first one might need some additional work being out of focus.
Jun 28, 2014 20:51:20 #
I like the second one, it's a bit different and pretty colours. Can I suggest the third one would look better with the horizon straightened.
Jun 28, 2014 21:04:49 #
If it was easy... all photos would be exceptional therefore none would be. Nature is challenging because your models aren't often cooperative, and the settings are uncontrolled. You don't get perfect studio lighting with each shot. All photographs are a series of tradeoffs which often have to be calculated on the fly (often literally) One thing you can do is to take notes. Look up in your metadata to find what the settings were that produced good shots and bad shots and work at understanding the differences. It is this kind of feedback that allows us to improve.
Jun 28, 2014 22:30:51 #
Jun 28, 2014 22:41:27 #
Under certain lighting conditions I set my Canon to spot metering - it has worked well in high contrast shot and with birds in flight. Give that a try.
Jun 29, 2014 01:05:32 #
Ohhhh! So THAT's where she got the idea. When my daughter was 10, we went to Disney World. One of the attractions was a Shark Pool which people would snorkel across. Even though Aubrey was not a strong swimmer, she had no fear of the water (in fact, she had an affinity for it) .... so, as we crossed the pool, she kind of laid on my back, holding onto my shoulders while looking through her dive mask.
Jun 29, 2014 21:27:43 #
Jun 30, 2014 08:02:38 #
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