Advice and Critique corner

[Gate Keeper]

The face of innocence, beautifully captured Jeff and the portrait looks natural, one for the family album. I am not able to offer up a critique, as your presentation is spot on, thank you very much for sharing

[Gate Keeper]

African Fish Eagle, Black Kite, Sacred Ibis Kenya

by Philip Gate Keeper, on Flickr

Photographed on 1 July. Out of shot below the tree were several Nile Crocodiles and Hippos in a water reservoir at the Nairobi National Park. Covid-19 restrictions in the park prevents motorists from getting out of their cars. Sadly, I couldn't get close enough.

The 300mm lens struggled with the shot, as it was almost maxed out even with the X2 digital magnification/digital crop.

Not the best shot in terms of details, MP or clarity, but I thought it made an interesting photo.

In post-edit, I had to de-noise and in doing so, lost some of the finer details.

Critique is welcomed

[coolcat]

Originally Posted by Gate Keeper

The face of innocence, beautifully captured Jeff and the portrait looks natural, one for the family album. I am not able to offer up a critique, as your presentation is spot on, thank you very much for sharing

Thanks for that Phil.

The photo shoot posed some unique challenges.

The main one being a rather lively not quite two year old and the close proximity of the river

In that particular shot I would rather the composition had Phoebe on the left so her gaze had space moving out of frame to the right.
The reality was getting her to sit still for more than a minute, me getting prone in the stinging nettles super quickly ready to start shooting. Then having Mum riverside of her daughter.....Ready to stop any sudden child v river action

Other than that, I feel it captures her well and the parents are very happy with the photos......and that's all what matters in the end

[coolcat]

Originally Posted by Gate Keeper

African Fish Eagle, Black Kite, Sacred Ibis Kenya

by Philip Gate Keeper, on Flickr

Photographed on 1 July. Out of shot below the tree were several Nile Crocodiles and Hippos in a water reservoir at the Nairobi National Park. Covid-19 restrictions in the park prevents motorists from getting out of their cars. Sadly, I couldn't get close enough.

The 300mm lens struggled with the shot, as it was almost maxed out even with the X2 digital magnification/digital crop.

Not the best shot in terms of details, MP or clarity, but I thought it made an interesting photo.

In post-edit, I had to de-noise and in doing so, lost some of the finer details.

Critique is welcomed

Some spectacular wildlife there Phil.
I'm guessing you weren't wading in the water to take that shot?

Not sure what you could have done differently given the constraints of the equipment to shoot at the distances involved.
There is a reason why big fast super long telephoto prime lens cost the money they do

I wonder if you could use a teleconverter with that lens to get you closer to the action?
I have found cropping post production tends to give better results than using a digital crop in camera.
Maybe worth doing a few test shots using both methods to see which works best for you?

Whatever, you have captured a scene that is very unique and most of us will never get to see in the flesh so to speak

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by coolcat

Thanks for that Phil.

The photo shoot posed some unique challenges.

The main one being a rather lively not quite two year old and the close proximity of the river

In that particular shot I would rather the composition had Phoebe on the left so her gaze had space moving out of frame to the right.
The reality was getting her to sit still for more than a minute, me getting prone in the stinging nettles super quickly ready to start shooting. Then having Mum riverside of her daughter.....Ready to stop any sudden child v river action

Other than that, I feel it captures her well and the parents are very happy with the photos......and that's all what matters in the end

Hi Jeff, here is an idea for the future.

Take some landscape shots of the river bank that you could use as a background to create the effect you want, then in edit, layer and blend in Phoebe so everything looks natural and the layering can’t be detected.

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by coolcat

Some spectacular wildlife there Phil.
I'm guessing you weren't wading in the water to take that shot?

Not sure what you could have done differently given the constraints of the equipment to shoot at the distances involved.
There is a reason why big fast super long telephoto prime lens cost the money they do

I wonder if you could use a teleconverter with that lens to get you closer to the action?
I have found cropping post production tends to give better results than using a digital crop in camera.
Maybe worth doing a few test shots using both methods to see which works best for you?

Whatever, you have captured a scene that is very unique and most of us will never get to see in the flesh so to speak

Thanks Jeff

Olympus are launching a 150-400mm Zoom Len’s with a built in teleconverter and image stability in the autumn $6,000-$8000 USD. Out of my league so I will settle on a teleconverter: 1.4 or X2, alternatively buy a superzoom bridge camera. I had a Canon Powershot superzoom which I gave away to Jessica. I bought the superzoom in 2010. The newer ones have made significant improvements in MP, zoom range, image stability and digital processing etc, The new ones are a fraction of what it costs to buy a Big Ma.

Digital crop:

Thanks Jeff for suggesting doing the crop post edit and not in camera. I will certainly give it a try.

[Gate Keeper]

Raw or superfine jpeg?

Any thoughts or preferences?

[coolcat]

Originally Posted by Gate Keeper

Hi Jeff, here is an idea for the future.

Take some landscape shots of the river bank that you could use as a background to create the effect you want, then in edit, layer and blend in Phoebe so everything looks natural and the layering can’t be detected.

I’m not into compositing Phil, it’s cheating as far as I’m concerned and as a photographer it’s not my bag .
I’ll leave that to the artist/creative type photographer

[coolcat]

Originally Posted by Gate Keeper

Raw or superfine jpeg?

Any thoughts or preferences?

RAW all the way for me these days.
Lot more ability to recover highlights and shadows in post

[Gate Keeper]

Originally Posted by coolcat

I’m not into compositing Phil, it’s cheating as far as I’m concerned and as a photographer it’s not my bag .
I’ll leave that to the artist/creative type photographer

Fair enough Jeff One of the photos I posted up on a photography forum, showed a lioness drinking from a puddle of water in a field of grass. Someone in the photography forum was quite critical of the photo, saying it was rubbish and in editing I should have created more field to the left of the lionesses, through clone and stamp - making the photo much wider. I did not oblige as I didn’t really understand how to do it in an undetectable way. I thanked the guy for his brilliant comment.

I had a similar remark from someone else, who felt layering was cheating. I had a laugh, as later on he was using a layer to replace a bland sky. He didn’t do it very well and on top of that, he oversaturated the sky with too much blue, unattractive. I didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to destroy his post.

It can work, if it’s carefully done

Your a professional photographer Jeff and I really value your opinion