Post Your Pics Of Spring

[insomniac]

Great pics Hazmatt. I love the clarity and the detail? What is the trick for getting such clear pics? Is it the lense? I noticed that those pics were taken a very high speeds. ISO 800 and 1/1000s. I usually shot at ISO 100 or 200 outdoors @ 1/200 s or slower.

[hazmatt]

Originally Posted by insomniac

Great pics Hazmatt. I love the clarity and the detail? What is the trick for getting such clear pics? Is it the lense? I noticed that those pics were taken a very high speeds. ISO 800 and 1/1000s. I usually shot at ISO 100 or 200 outdoors @ 1/200 s or slower.

Thanks Insomniac.

The lens and the camera sure help with the clarity and sharpness but that's not to say you can't get great results with a different setup.

I'm shooting with a 1D Mark IIn and the lens used was the 70-200mm 2.8L IS. The picture was captured in RAW and then converted to jpeg. I ran the pictures through the 'unsharpen mask' feature in photoshop to add that extra bit of sharpness. I also cropped the images for better composition. I would have needed a much longer lens to crop as tightly as I wanted to.

As far as the settings go, it was towards the end of the day a little before the sun goes down. Therefore the light was softer and needed a higher ISO, however, I could have used a slightly lower ISO as well but with slower shutter speeds. I stuck with the fast shutter speed to freeze any potential motion from the squirrels.

You are correct to shoot with lower ISO speeds when possible. Lower ISO speeds are typically preferable as they produce pictures with much less noticeable/finer grain, but as you see here, you can still get sharp pics using a higher ISO.

If you have photoshop here is a link to a tutorial you may find helpful. I'm sure there are better ones out there but this has a 'less is more' kind of approach.
Photo Edit 101

If you don't have photoshop, try to get your hands on it anyway you can.

Hope all this rambling helped in someway.

[hazmatt]

Oh and speaking of squirrels, here's a pic of one that used to roam my college campus. Rumor had it he was created in one of the labs. I doubt it's true but you never know. The only albino squirrel I have ever seen.

Sorry for the poor image quality but it is a scanned image of the picture which was taken with a disposable camera.


for a chuckle, try to view it upside down and use your imagination.

[insomniac]

Originally Posted by hazmatt

Thanks Insomniac.

The lens and the camera sure help with the clarity and sharpness but that's not to say you can't get great results with a different setup.

I'm shooting with a 1D Mark IIn and the lens used was the 70-200mm 2.8L IS. The picture was captured in RAW and then converted to jpeg. I ran the pictures through the 'unsharpen mask' feature in photoshop to add that extra bit of sharpness. I also cropped the images for better composition. I would have needed a much longer lens to crop as tightly as I wanted to.

As far as the setting go, it was towards the end of the day a little before the sun goes down. Therefore the light was softer and needed a higher ISO, however, I could have used a slightly lower ISO as well but with slower shutter speeds. I stuck with the fast shutter speed to freeze any potential motion from the squirrels.

You are correct to shoot with lower ISO speeds when possible. Lower ISO speeds are typically preferable as they produce pictures with much less noticeable/finer grain, but as you see here, you can still get sharp pics using a higher ISO.

If you have photoshop here is a link to a tutorial you may find helpful. I'm sure there are better ones out there but this has a 'less is more' kind of approach.
Photo Edit 101

If you don't have photoshop, try to get your hands on it anyway you can.

Hope all this rambling helped in someway.

Thanks for all the great tips hazmatt. What are the advantages of shooting in RAW mode. I have never tried it.

[insomniac]

Originally Posted by hazmatt

for a chuckle, try to view it upside down and use your imagination.

[hazmatt]

Originally Posted by insomniac

Thanks for all the great tips hazmatt. What are the advantages of shooting in RAW mode. I have never tried it.

FYI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAW_image_format