# I'd really like your opinion on these



## veet (May 16, 2011)

About a month ago I picked up a Canon 40D and remember now why I loved photography 30 years ago. I haven't had a real camera since then and am loving it.
Tell me honestly how these pictures could be improved, I have alot of kids so I have a thick skin.

Thanks.


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## iamphate (May 16, 2011)

They are nice, veet. I'm sure you are using a kit lens. If you intend to shoot birds or wildlife, I suggest you get yourself a faster and longer lens. Even otherwise, it is extremely difficult to get great shots from a kit lens, but still possible.


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## veet (May 16, 2011)

Actually it's a half step up from the kit lens. A Canon 50-250 Zoom. I've been playing around with it trying to find the best combination of zoom and f-stop to get the sharpest images the lens can give me.
In my world paying $1000 to $3000 for a lens just isn't going to happen, I just have to do the best I can with what I can afford.


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## Will Watts (Jun 18, 2008)

Hi, and welcome to TSF :wave:

These are excellent photos in my opinion, but they would be even better if you could get them a bit sharper. 

The first picture in the water has nice composition, but the bird seems to me to be slightly fuzzy. (This may also be emphasised by the upload quality etc.), in the second picture it would look better if the bird's eye was in sharp focus.

It might be to do with the upload quality, the full quality pictures might look a lot sharper.

Other than that, I can't say much as they are much better than my own photos :smile:


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

Hi veet :wave:

Both photos have excellent composition, I suspect it was down to luck to catch the small hole in the water, from where the bird had just speared something in that 1st pic :grin:

The 2nd pic is just lovely, the dappled light and the bird's pose is wonderful









As mentioned above, they could be a little bit 'crisper', but that'll come as you get more used to your camera/lens - Beautiful pics though


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## veet (May 16, 2011)

Thank you someguy and WereBo.
You're right about the first picture, it breaks my heart that it's not a bit sharper but the image itself I really love. the second one is pretty sharp at the full size.

Thanks for your input


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

Hi Veet

I also welcome you to our little corner in the world :wave:

Beautiful photos, both. I see that you have Photoshop7. I am sure that Photoshop 7 has a 'Smart Sharpen' tool. If so, open each image into Photoshop, then:
Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. In the smart sharpen box set it to:
Amount = 25%
Radius = 1
Remove Gaussian Blur

That will give you a very small amount of sharpening ... Then repeat the process 2 or 3 times, slowly building up the sharpness. I just did your first image and it improved slightly. You did have a slow shutter speed (1/50) for the zoom at 131mm. If that was hand held, to get it as sharp as you did is quite incredible.

Your other image is sharp but it will sparkle with a touch of smart sharpen.

I think both captures are gorgeous.


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## veet (May 16, 2011)

Thank you Donald.
I've never used Smart Sharpen, I've always used Unsharp Mask. That's something I'll have to experiment with.
I have PhotoShop CS3 but when I switched over to Windows 7 64-bit it wouldn't install so I had to drop back to CS. The fun part of that is the installer in CS3 told me I "need a more recent version of Windows to use this program."


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## veet (May 16, 2011)

Nope, Just Sharpen, Sharpen Edges, Sharpen More and Unsharp Mask.
Too bad, I wanted to see the difference.
By the way, the original images are probably a bit sharper than you saw. I resized them down to 1024 along the longer dimension but forgot to sharpen them before saving them (as jpeg instead of my usual tiff) before uploading.


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## veet (May 16, 2011)

Unsharp Mask seems to be the same as your Smart Sharpen. I work in the printing industry and always used it at about 100 - .7 - 3
For the type of work I've been used to doing that worked well. It seems for photographic stuff the more subtle use works much, much better. I applied it at the settings you suggested and it made a big improvement to the second picture.
Thanks!


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## Dori1960 (May 19, 2011)

The crop in the first one is very good.

Maybe re crop the second one so there is more space in front of the bird on the second shot so we can see where the bird is going.

Dori


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

for me I love the softness of the first image and would try to isolate the bird in any sharpening so that the background did not start to get too much - the composition is much better in the first than the second: the bird smack dab in the middle does not work as well as it may if conforming with our old friend The Rule of Thirds - textures and colours look great, just needs re-cropping as suggested above maybe?


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## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

The first one I just love. Something about the colors and the composition and even the objects in the scene... I just love it!

The 2nd is also very nice but for me the light/dark areas created by the sun and shadows distract me.


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## veet (May 16, 2011)

Thank you all for your kind words and honest critique. How else can I learn????
Thanks.
I took some pictures this morning and one I really love, but the cropping is driving me crazy. I can't seem to get it "just right".


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