How can I improve these Swan pictures: These photos were taken on a cold windy day with a Canon 70D and a Canon 70 300 mm IS USM lens, I used a fence as a steady rest, distance is...

longmg Loc: South Shore, MA

These photos were taken on a cold windy day with a Canon 70D and a Canon 70 300 mm IS USM lens, I used a fence as a steady rest, distance is about 75 yards. Am I expecting too much from my equipment? Looking for any and all help.

(Download)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

longmg wrote:

These photos were taken on a cold windy day with a Canon 70D and a Canon 70 300 mm IS USM lens, I used a fence as a steady rest, distance is about 75 yards. Am I expecting too much from my equipment? Looking for any and all help.

What processing software do you have? I use Lightroom, and I generally work down the right column, cropping, adjusting brightness, contrast, etc. A little brightness, whiteness, and contrast would help these shots. And get rid of the "beard" on that swan.

If you don't zoom in as much, you have more options for cropping later. For example, you could have the swans off to the side, more than centered in each shot. Think Rule of Thirds.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

longmg wrote:

These photos were taken on a cold windy day with a Canon 70D and a Canon 70 300 mm IS USM lens, I used a fence as a steady rest, distance is about 75 yards. Am I expecting too much from my equipment? Looking for any and all help.

Settings:
300mm
Auto WB
ISO 200
1/400 sec
F8
Full Manual Mode

Your WB is definitely off, why shoot full manual mode and leave WB set to "auto"?
Your lens was at full zoom, these 75-300mm lenses get progressively softer over 250mm.
Did you have a filter on the lens? In poor light a UV filter can degrade the image, cheap filters are much worse than quality filters.
Remember, when you shoot in Manual mode, you cannot blame image quality on your gear. Overall the focus itself looks good, and the DOF is fine. I think your only problem is optical degradation. I might have selected ISO 800 under these cloudy conditions, as well as Cloudy WB.
Keep practicing.

longmg Loc: South Shore, MA

Hi Jerry thanks for your response, I have Lightroom Ill do some work with these shoots, Im new to the digital world and have a lot of learning to do.

longmg Loc: South Shore, MA

Thanks MT Shooter, WB I guess I missed that one during my setup. I didnt use a filter. As suggested Ill practice more my goal is to take an image that needs very little post processing.

Jolly Roger Loc: Dorset. UK

The camera seems tilted to the left, particularly in No.2.

Dave R. Loc: PNW

I'm unclear if the photos where originally in RAW format. If so then more data is available for correcting problems. There is so much to learn so stick with it and keep practicing. I recently purchased a book by Brian Peterson named Understanding Exposure. I thought I had a good handle on that but now after reading the book have learned a great deal more. Easy read and full of very good information. I and others here on UHH highly recommend it if you struggle with that aspect.

Greg-Colo Loc: Fort Collins,Co

Pay them Union scale..... Bread crumbs

longmg Loc: South Shore, MA

Thanks Dave, they were shot in mraw and jpg, I'll order the book today. The 70D is a Christmas present from my wife, boy I have a lot to learn!

Fullframe Loc: Bucks County, Pennsylvania

longmg, I think you have some good images to work with in lightroom. They might not be as sharp as you want, but you can make up for a lot of that in LR.

For white balance correction, you can often use the dropper and take a sample of the picture that is supposed to be pure white, which will then correct the entire scene.

Also try spot metering on white birds, since they are a tad overexposed. Use some radial filters or an exposure brush to in LR to correct the overexposure.

You can get rid of the beards on both swans with spot removal, combination of heal and clone, although photoshop might do a better job. LR is good enough though.

This is about what I'm thinking