Birds from the butterfly conservitory in Niagara Falls

[johnnya]

Took this picture at a nearby Butterfly Conservitory. I believe it's a Zebra Finch from Australia and the 2nd is a green Cheeked Conure from Southeastern Asia. Very tricky with birds. They don't sit pretty for very long :)

14913

14913

[mdonahoe1]

Very nice John. I especially like the composition og the third.
Marianne

[johnnya]

Thanks for looking Marianne. It's quite overwhelming in a conservitory. Well, maybe not for some but for me it was. I'll be posting more soon. Unfortunately the weather up here has been AWEFULL but the past week has been great.
Thanks
John

[Kaye]

Hi John,
Very nice shots. I like the finch, but the last shot has brilliant detail and good composition. Fantastic.
Were you on manual? Perhaps you could post your settings.

[johnnya]

Thanks for the kind words Kaye. I'm glad you like them. The green bird was tricky as he kind of flinched all the time and wouldn't stop moving. Both were taken in mannual mode.
The Finch = f5.6 / 1/30 / ISO 100
The green bird = f5.6 / 1/250 / ISO 1600 <----- if i remember right I took a bunch of shots of this bird. It was funny lighting where he was and the higher ISO shot turned out the best.

I have been playing more on manual lately and rather like it. I'm a long way from taking the types of photos I want... crisp, clear and clean with lots of detail.

[kinetic]

Hi John, I see you are getting into your manual settings for these shots…good to see you working with it.
On your shots, and looking at your EXIF the shutter speed is too slow for capturing the birds on the first two, birds that have a tendency to be on the move constantly, like finches etc require a faster shutter speed if you have to capture them with good detail…in comparison to the parrot family which have tendency to sit about more and can be pretty static. This makes them much easier to capture.
If you had used the shutter speed from the third shot on the finches, you would have been fine.

You have adjusted the ISO to 1600, probably due to poor light or to allow you to increase the shutter speed.
If you went with a larger aperture of say 2.8 and at the distance you would have been at, that would also have helped, allowing you to work with a lower ISO of maybe around 400 or 600.

You also mentioned getting good detail in your shots as you progress.
Remember the image will only be as sharp and crisp as the lens you have mounted on the front of your camera is capable of giving, use poor quality glass, and that is what you will get in you images.

Manual mode is a balancing act that you are in full control of; you use your judgment to come up with the best setting that you require for the given shot you are taking.
Keep doing what you are doing John, it all starts to make sense the more you do it.

Mark

[johnnya]

Mark.
Thank you for looking and taking the time to see where my photos could be improved and to explain why. These types of comments to me is where new photographers get the most information from to improve and move forward.
Thanks for the help Mark
John

[TimmyGator]

Nice photos and great comments from Mark!

[johnnya]

ThNks Timmy.