70-200VR lens has its first day in the sun ...

[fozzie]

http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... 1&pos=-191

Please check out my pic and let me know what you think and how I could improve it.

Thanks (I think)

[the foto fanatic]

hi fozzie
I like the specs on this lens - but how big is it? I was a bit surprised by its apparent size in the pix from yesterday's minimeet in Sydney.
Do you find it cumbersome to use at all? What about carrying it around?
Trevor

[the foto fanatic]

Sorry, I was busy asking my question and didn't answer yours! Very rude of me!

It looks like you missed the focus - the foliage behind the bird is sharp, but the bird is not. I assume you would have wanted the bird as the subject in this shot?

However, the contrast & colour seem OK from this first attempt.

Keep shooting.

[xerubus]

Good morning... and congratulations on your purchase... i hope you get many hours of enjoyment out of it.

There's a little rule of thumb which I have posted previously, and I'll repeat it again. In nature photography the most important aspect of 'getting' the shot is to ensure that the subject's eye/'s are in focus. This is where we naturally focus our attention.

There's a few things I would do differently with this shot... and this is by no means an attack on you or your skills. It's just some critique from my point of view... remember that everyone will have a different point of view.

I think you need to ask yourself what your main focus is for the shot. Is it the tree? Is it the bird? Is it the fruit on the tree? Is it all of the above?

In your shot, it is unclear exactly what you want us to enjoy. The rest of my comments are if you wanted to capture just the bird.

The focus point is actually behind the bird. You can see how the leaves and fruit are sharply in focus, which means the bird as a subject is blurred out.

I would zoom in quite a lot more and have the bird fill or mostly fill the frame. Get the focus on the eyes, and remember the general rule of thirds (which will be greatly debated by centre framers). If your frame was filled, it would be nice composition to have the bird sharp and the fruit slightly blurred out.

The only other thing I would suggest is to get your lighting right. It's better practice to get this right in the initial shot, rather than in postprocessing. Up the contrast, add some brightness, and get those curves theoretically correct. Some fill flash would make a world of difference in this shot.

I hope this helps?

cheers and take care.

[birddog114]

hi fozzie
Do you find it cumbersome to use at all? What about carrying it around?
Trevor

People will think you're working for AP or a newspaper agency.
It's not big as you worried but it has a size.

[gstark]

The focus point is actually behind the bird. You can see how the leaves and fruit are sharply in focus, which means the bird as a subject is blurred out.

Backfocus!

Backfocus!

I would zoom in quite a lot more and have the bird fill or mostly fill the frame. Get the focus on the eyes, and remember the general rule of thirds (which will be greatly debated by centre framers). If your frame was filled, it would be nice composition to have the bird sharp and the fruit slightly blurred out.

I'm wondering if he's already at the maximum focal length provided by the lens? There's a good reason I bought the 80-400 ...

The only other thing I would suggest is to get your lighting right. It's better practice to get this right in the initial shot, rather than in postprocessing. Up the contrast, add some brightness, and get those curves theoretically correct. Some fill flash would make a world of difference in this shot.

Yes, I wopuld have to agree. it looks to me as if the meter is treating this image as a backlit one, hence it looks to me to be underexposed by about
one stop.

Recognising the situation is an acquired skill; throwing in the fill may or may not be a practical situation based upon the lens-subject distance.

[Vicareyus]

Fozzie...I can tell you are going to have great fun with that lens! I agree with all comments above. Pic looks quite dark on my screen, so think you should in these situations compensate by at least one (maybe even 1.5-2) stops. So, when you take a photo like this, take one shot as meter tells you, then dial in a series of compensation shots (+.5, +1.0, +1.5) till you start getting an idea of what will work best for that type of shot (ie braketing although in this case just on the +ve side). If it's a shot I particularly like, I always try to take a few shots at different compensations. It's hard to tell from just the LCD out in the field which is going to look the best (and I'm not very disciplined about looking at the histogram on the LCD). Anyhow, hope this is helpful.
Vic

[fozzie]

Thank you to everyone for your comments and recommendations.

I will take this on board, and next time, hopefully I will gain a better result.

Anyway I had fun doing it, and to me that's what counts.

Experience is only gained by your mistakes!.


Cheers,

[phillipb]

Mate, that's why I reckon I would make a great teacher. If people could learn from my mistakes, then I could teach them a hell of a lot.