Photo Critique Club

[CCsGarden]

Any tips? The focus in pretty much all of these is soft, and I really have no idea why. I made sure to focus on the face in all of them...

The settings are similar for all, ISO 100 ish, f5.6, and shutter speed 1/100 to 1/160 of a second, except for the brown hen, which was 1/80. The lighting wasn't the best, as it was pretty foggy, so I did some lightening and minimal cropping afterwards.

I think this one is one of the best, the focus is pretty good.
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Then none of these look great...
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And I think this is the best of the white hen.
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Any help would be appreciated! I feel like I'm still learning how to work my new camera

I really love the first Brahma photo! I can see it's focusing on the grass more then her head.

 

[Gill-b]

Hand held. I don't think a tripod would've worked for these chickens, they move too fast! So that's probably part of the problem, just a bit of movement with a slow shutter speed.

A little while back I discovered a YouTube channel that helped me with focusing problems, but unfortunately you have to sift through his videos to find the helpful ones.
Here is his first video that gives advice...

 

[Gill-b]

@HorseGirlAbby
The stabilisation advice he gave in the video (the one that I linked in my previous post), helped me to take these pictures of very busy (moving very quickly) juvenile Sunbirds that were in darkish shade of my grapevine...

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[HorseGirlAbby]

@HorseGirlAbby
The stabilisation advice he gave in the video (the one that I linked in my previous post), helped me to take these pictures of very busy (moving very quickly) juvenile Sunbirds that where in darkish shade of my grapevine...

View media item 7975395
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Those are so cute! I will definitely take a look at his videos.

 

[Gill-b]

Those are so cute!

They are very small... the size of a grape as you can see in the second photograph, the one of the female Sunbird. My photographs are not super sharp, but they are much better than they would have been had I not taken the advice. I hope they are helpful to you too.

 

[R2elk]

Hand held. I don't think a tripod would've worked for these chickens, they move too fast! So that's probably part of the problem, just a bit of movement with a slow shutter speed.

Using a gimbal head on a tripod can help.

Another method is to mount a camera plate on a walking stick.

Using a flash can stop motion. There are ways to use a flash without causing red eye. Using a flash also allows the use of a smaller aperture increasing the DOF.

Using IS can be helpful with slow shutter speeds but can be harmful with high shutter speeds. Some cameras have multiple forms of IS. You need to be sure to use the proper one for what you are doing.

Focus Magic has the ability to correct motion blur if you are willing to play with it long enough.

 

[notabitail]

How could these photos be improved?

 

[Gill-b]

How could these photos be improved?

Play around with colour and lighting in post-production editing. If these were paintings they would be criticised for muddy colours. The colours can be made cleaner. I personally feel that there is too much turquoise (look at the screen on the second image; and bottom of each key on the third image) and blue (look overall of the forth image), but be careful not to add yellow. If you have a preference to the turquoise and blue, then crisp these colours up by removing yellow. Perhaps remove the magenta (pink) at the bottom of the second image.

(Edited to correct an image numbering mistake.)

 

[notabitail]

Play around with colour and lighting in post-production editing. If these were paintings they would be criticised for muddy colours. The colours can be made cleaner. I personally feel that there is too much turquoise (look at the screen on the second image; and bottom of each key on the third image) and blue (look overall of the forth image), but be careful not to add yellow. If you have a preference to the turquoise and blue, then crisp these colours up by removing yellow. Perhaps remove the magenta (pink) at the bottom of the third image.

Oooo, I do see what you're saying there. I didn't even realize there was so much reflection there.