I need some critiquing - these are some snaps I took today while down at the beach - now I need some feedback and ideas on how they could be better - I was using my Nikon with a 55-200 lens. the lighting in particular is what I am not happy with but how do I get it better

Oh my my!!! thats fabulous- wow Lee-Anne!!!

I dont get the light right too - tooo much light. I have no idea how to get the 'right' amount to reflect the true colour.

I end up trying to fix it with my 'contrast' in photoshop...and then it looses quality as a result. ugh!

I thought of you when I was talking photos of that Gonanna Mandy

I still have that shot!! All I remember was standing on the picnic seat!!!

wow. how lucky are you to have the camera nearby to catch this wonderful sight on the beach. I've only seen a Cassowary in the zoo, so to see one in its' own environment would be awesome.

Actually the lighting on the first one is pretty spot on. You can still see the details of the feathers on the side in shadow, and on the left side the sand hasn't been overblown with too much light. May I suggest you turn the camera over into the portrait postition (up and down) so you could capture the entire 'horn' and all the red 'dangly bits' (please excuxe my lack of terminology). You have a spot of catch light in the eye but the focus is soft. The first thing anybody looks at is the eye and if its out of focus it spoils the overall impact of the shot. Move a focus point (the red dot inside the view finder) over the eye and then take the shot, making sure that you capture all the bits that are interesting. Other than that the colour is gorgeous!!

The second shot could also have had the camera rotated around to shoot in the portrait position. The eye is in the shadow of the socket so if you had popped up the flash and used it as fill flash, that would have lessened the darkness of that shadow. It would also put a spot of catchlight in the eye. Catch lights bring the eye to life. And it may have given a sheen to the black feathers.

Wow, Cassowary's have so much colour.

Great side profile of the goanna. I know they are long reptiles so to get all the tail in the shot would have near impossible. Wide angle may have got it??? The leaf behind the head just spoils the clean line of the Goanna a bit. But that's the challenge with shooting wildlife. If you are clever with cloning in your photo editing program, that would be helpful. Again, fill flash would have lessened the shadows and put a catch light in the eye.

Tip. You can put in a catchlight in the eye via Photoshop. Use a new layer for your brush tool, adjust the brush to a very small setting (between 1 and 5 pixels) and making sure the colour is white, pop in a dot of white in the eye about where you think it should be.

viola. the eye comes to life.

hope this all makes a bit of sense and helps a bit.

Basically
1. on a bright day, use the flash to lessen the shadows,
2. turn the camera to the portrait position,
3. watch the background and get all the important elements into the shot.

Thanks Lee-Anne for posting these!!! Gives me a chance to put on my South Australian Camera Club Judge 'hat' for a bit

Tiff

Mandy. what settings are you using when you get too much light???? ie can you give the f stop number, the ISO and/or the shutter speed. I know this is like another language, but if you right click on your image in windows, look at the details tab. scroll down. its all written there for reference. Oh and what lens.

mwah.

tiff

Those colours are amazing Lee-Anne.

I didn't know this....I'm off to have a looksie....maybe my camera doesn't need replacing.....it could be me.

happy to help Deb!!

I've got to check it out as soon as I get a chance and find the details.... Mum and Dad are about to leave to go home after their easter stay, so will have the afternoon to fiddle with it!!!

So maybe this is better from a positioning point of view but I am really not happy at all with the lighting and colouring in this one and the photo is almost a little grainy. However I am happy with the background blurriness

you can use your crop tool in whichever program you're using and crop a portrait shape around the bird. You would lose all that empty space on its left side that really not relevant to the bird. You'll probably find then as it now looks bigger in the new pic that its blurred.

try using your curves and levels adjustments in PS. that should brighten it up no end.
just remember to do all this on a duplicate of the original shot, until you get your confidence with PS. don't accidentally ruin the original
:O)
tiff

As I'm totally hopeless with cameras Tiff - I use two ... cos i dont know how to use either enough!

An Olympus SP570UZ (for close ups and far aways... so long as its still!!!)
it's not a dslr - but 'almost'... it has a 20x optical zoom of 4.6 - 92 mm (1:2.8 - 4.5) whatever that means... Its fabulous for micro for some reason!

This is written down the side of the view panel...
I have no idea what any of it means...

1/640 F5.6
0.0
ISO 64

And my Sony DSLR which I use for everything else
The lens says 3.5-5.6/18-70

And on the screen says
Raw+J
1/8 F3.5 ISO 400

I do use both cameras on 'P' though...

Just through hit and miss... it seems to do better that way!

ok so is there where I admitt I dont have photoshop and do any editing I do in Picasa

here's a flower...
first one not edited and second edited in PS