Sony DSLR "Picture of the day"

[Ldorey]

A300
f5.0
ISO 400

[dbatapbr]

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]I have been reading the postings here for awhile. Recently my KM 7D departed this world, so I am now getting used to my A700. Here is a shot I took the other day. I think the birds like it so I'll keep it.44578

[dr4gon]

Interesting shot. I'm sure the A700 will fit in to your routine nicely

[seanhoxx]

Frank are you doing drive by shootings again? LOL Hey look new people!! hello and welcome. ldorey cool shot, you seeing that bokeh guys!! So is the bird hiding his face from you? neat reflection also.

[Peekayoh]

Great, two new posters! The more the merrier!
One problem, no XIF data. This is the original post for this thread.

Certainly about time we had one! Let's try to have a nice picture every day!

So if we could, let's have a few simple guidelines:

• One picture per person per day max.
• Every picture must be different.
• EXIF Info (including lens used).
• Comments/caption on the shot.

These are guidelines and not "writ in stone" but do have some significance.
Any and all criticisms are well meant.

dbatapbr. Good shot. Where, what and when?
Caption? "A SHY BIRD" ( hmm, that may not have the same connotations as in the UK).

So, Ldorey, jumping right in with some helpful (I hope) criticism, slightly overexposed and lacking in contrast. Do you tackle any post processing? (Picture attached)

[Peekayoh]

I don't have "Drive By" Mode on my A700. Guess that's one up for the A100.

Seriously though, Frank, you need a faster lens. I guess f8 is needed for sharpness with that lens of yours? Birds in flight are not easy, are they?

[Peekayoh]

I've been biting my tongue and trying not to be the bad guy but....

Focus; You missed it.
Exposure: Under
Colour balance; good job you said it was a ketchup bottle.
This is a pretty mundane subject so unless you get the basics right, a "keeper" it is not.

Anyway, to illustrate the point(s) I took a pic of our Ketchup Bottle at a similar distance and under similar lighting conditions. You can right click the image for XIF which is
ISO 800, 1/40th, f2. I did not do any sharpening.

Sorry to be brutal and If I missed the artistic point, I apologise in advance.

[Ldorey]

Thanks for the tips Peekayoh. I did not use and post processing on the picture I posted but your processed looks a lot nicer. I hopfuly will be picking up a copy of Photoshop Elements 7 shortly. I have been using Picasa but it is pretty limited.

[sparkie1263]

I don't have "Drive By" Mode on my A700. Guess that's one up for the A100.

Seriously though, Frank, you need a faster lens. I guess f8 is needed for sharpness with that lens of yours? Birds in flight are not easy, are they?

What f stop should I be shooting this at? I bumped the Iso to 400 to get the speed up a little.

Thanks
Frank

[Peekayoh]

Ldorey, you can't rely on the camera to get the exposure dead on everytime. Presumably you were in amongst the trees in a low key situation but there are a couple of things you can try.
Switch to "spot" metering.
Zoom in tight on the subject, use the AE LOCK button to freeze the exposure, reframe the shot before releasing the shutter.
"Bracket" the shot.

If that fails, it's resort to software time.
Elements is good, Photoshop is better. There are deals for students.
Shooting in RAW gives better control over rescuing a shot. Sony provide a program for this but Adobe Camera Raw, provided with Photoshop and/or Lightroom2 is better and also provides for conversion to DNG files.