Lou FCD
Posts: 5455 Joined: Jan. 2006
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Quote (Robin @ Jan. 24 2012,10:13) | Quote (Lou FCD @ Jan. 23 2012,16:15) | Well, a few thoughts.
1. Buy good glass. It's worth every cent you pay for it. 2. Carry your camera everywhere. 3. Shoot everything. 4. Shoot it again.
In the 2.5 years since I bought my first "real" camera (that Rebel XS, which seems like a toy now...), I've easily squeezed the shutter button 100,000 times. Easily 100k. |
I do use Nikkor lenses, so I'm pretty sure the glass is good. Pretty sure, but not positive.
I think part of my problem is I haven't figured out the optimal settings for my camera (Nikon D3100) for shooting birds. I feel like I've gotten pretty close to your level of quality and clarity on a a few of the butterfly shots I've gotten (I've posted a few here), but I haven't figured out how to do that for birds for some reason.
As an example, my wife and I were hiking a few weeks ago at this preserve and we encountered this chickadee that was picking at sweet gum seeds. The chickadee - like the one you mentioned above - was not shy at all and did not care one bit when I shoved my camera lens up to it. I shot ten pics of him/her from different angles with slightly different settings, but I feel that none of them came out well at all. Each shot was just not sharp and didn't...'pop'. Really not sure why, but something is off. |
Well, without seeing the shot, I'm not sure what you mean or how to help. And I know fuck all about Nikon gear, so I'm useless to you there.
My suggestion from afar would be to keep posting them here, and ask each time "What do you all think I could do better with this shot?"
I'll bet you get some good feedback, especially if you post along with the picture the camera settings and lighting conditions when you took it. (The ISO was X, the shutter speed was y, the aperture was z, for starters.) I'll give you my thoughts, but remember I've pretty much just learned by winging it, and at the end of the day, I'm really still a newb.
-------------- “Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?
Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend
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