Black Duck

Went out to the local lake to try one of my new Pentax Lens, (70-210 f4)I am very happy with it, would like some of your opinions thank you

[IMG]http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab142/montyaus/ducks006.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG]http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab142/montyaus/ducks016a.jpg[/IMG]

thank you for looking

ps Iknow the second one needs straightening, none have been altered apart from crop of the second one.

The exposure looks good and also the sharpness and all.
The only problem is that the photos aren't that interesting.
If you can, you should next time aim your camera a bit higher so that you also get to see something more then just the water it would make the photo more interesting to look at.

#2 is out of focus.

#1 looks better with a bit more contrast and a much tighter crop leaving the main subject and its reflection. Like this:-




The white feathers around the head are still a little over exposed, but I'll leave you to work on that. I may have overdone the sharpening a little bit too.

Thank you for the comments and help,the photo in no1 looked good, but looking at the rework you have done shows the problems I have in exposure in good light, will try to work it out,when I was taking these photos Seagulls were flying around, and out of 20+ shots all were blurred,used shutter speed of 1/125, so will try some more at 1/400 or more, as the blurred shots would have been quite nice, some taking off and landing,with feathers extended and water standing in line as droplets from their legs and feet.

Anvh comments are helpfull, as he said a better back-ground would make it more pleasing to the eye, as well a tighter crop works as well

thank you

Here is another one, laughing duck is this better as there is no crop, and looks better focused [IMG]http://i858.photobucket.com/albums/ab142/montyaus/birds/ducks018.jpg[/IMG].

Exposure and contrast seem to be better but its still not in focus. Look closely at the eye. It is that which should be in sharp focus.

I don't think you are using a fast enough shutter speed really. I would increase the ISO from 100 to 400 and use at least 1/320th sec for shutter.

Personally, I find the water at left and top uninteresting and I would crop it out leaving just a study of the duck itself, but it needs a sharper subject.

Good effort though. Practice makes perfect.

Which make/model 70-210mm lens do you have?

I brought a SMC Pentax-A 75-210 f4 manual focus locally (for 30 English pounds) this is the first time I have tried it.

If you like that focal range, but would prefer auto focus, I can recommend the smc pentax-f 70-210mm lens.

With the manual lens that you have, I recommend setting the focus point selector to centre spot (it might do this automatically), focus on the animals eye(s), and ensure you have the green hexagon (focus confirmation) lit in the viewfinder.

Also, your lens will not give the best sharpness wide open You should stop down to around f8/f11/f16 for best sharpness.

If your images are still not sharp, you might have a back/forward focussing issue, which can be corrected.

That sounds like good advice, will try those settings through the week, and maybe able to get some good shots of Seagulls, or other birds that come my way, the hard part is focus on the birds in flight.

Trouble is, you have only 3 variables that affect exposure. Shutter speed, needs to be high'ish, aperture needs to be small'ish (bigger f number), and ISO needs to be set appropriately to get the exposure right.

Master those, use a tripod to eliminate camera shake, and you've cracked it.