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Hey everyone! My brother and his wife recently got some baby chickens (a first in our family!), so when my other siblings and I went over for a visit, I took along my camera and we had ourselves a little photo shoot! 🙂
I’d love critique on them – composition, editing, etc. Some of the photos don’t seem quite tack sharp in focus, but sometimes I was finding it difficult to determine that because the chicks are so fuzzy!
Any additional comments anyone has would be great!
Specs included in filenames; all shots handheld; shot in Aperture Priority.
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I had the same problem determining whether pictures of shiny packaging around smooth soap was sharp one time! It’s funny how that works sometimes!
I would say that the eyes (which aren’t fuzzy, and thus easier to tell if they are in focus or not) do not appear to be in focus on the first and second one.
I love the creative “poses” and different locations! Well done. My favorites are the chick in the hands and the chick on top of the pail. The bill open on the pail one really adds some personality. The highlight in the eye of the chicken in the hands one really makes that one feel alive and “deep”. Perhaps using flash at a SUPER low power (just enough to add a catch light) would help the other shots.
Perhaps in post I would try to bring out the yellow color in the feathers (without it looking over-saturated, of course).
I think the 4th one would be worth submitting for Lightstock.
I did try a little bit to look at the eyes to help me with determining if they were in focus, but it’s still hard to tell in some of the photos! I think I can see what you’re saying though. So now as I’m looking again through some of my “best” photos from that shoot, would you say that all these eyes below are in focus, but not one with the pink background?
I don’t have a speedlight or anything like that as far as flash, I just have the flash that is part of the camera body.
I did attempt to bring out the yellow more, but the chicks just aren’t all that yellow naturally, so it was just a stronger yellow around the face and looked fake.
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When we had chicks last year, I had fun photographing them to.
On some of the pictures the chicks look sleepy and,or cold. (0613,0644,0580,and 0609) We would rotate the chicks that were photographed to keep everyone warm and happy. 🙂
Focus is hard, especially when the chicks are “bright eyed, bushy tailed” and moving around. 😉
But great job!
Thanks @blessingscaptured! I think I saw a few of your pictures of chicks on Lightstock!
We tried to make the chicks’ time outside brief but I think they were a little chilly. Hey – welcome to New England! :p But that’s a good idea to rotate them out to keep them warm.
Whenever we’d put them in a different location, it would take them a minute to figure out what was going on, so they sat still for a little before trying to adventure out. But it was still hard to get the focus correct!
Sometimes the best way to get good focus for closeups is by setting it in manual and taking a bunch of shots while moving slightly in and out. Yes, the final shot is the clearest. What was your shutter speed? Was it the focus, or the shutter speed making it blurry? I find 1/200th of a sec is generally required for my macro shots. Yours aren’t quite macro, but still fairly detailed. I would like #1 and #4 a lot if they were clearer.
@dhancock, do you use manual focus even on moving objects, or primarily on things that are stationary?
Ooo, good point about shutter speed! You’re right – as I look at the specs on the photos, several of them have shutter speeds that are far too slow. I think I was in Aperture Priority, and must not have been keeping a close enough eye one that. I’m still working on evaluating my settings more quickly as I’m shooting. 🙂 (BTW, specs are in filenames if you’d like to see them for specific photos)
Since macro was brought up… at what point does something become defined as macro?
@bennett-family The closer you are to your subject, the less depth of field you’ll have. You move a little bit back and forth to get the focus exactly where you want. Works for both stationary and moving objects, but best on stationary.
The second one is TACK sharp! That’s my favorite. The third one (pink background) is out of focus. The last one is sharp too. The first one is sharp enough, but it doesn’t have the “tack” aspect, in my opinion. Just not seeing the crisp detail in the skin around the eye like you can in the second one. Perhaps viewing it on a higher resolution screen would allow you to see it better yourself.
Glad you didn’t try to edit the yellow beyond what was natural. 🙂
I’ve been shooting more and more in Manual these days when shooting moving subjects so that I can get the Shutter Speed fast enough. Av just doesn’t seem to choose a fast enough Shutter Speed. Perhaps there’s a setting in the menu somewhere that would help Av choose a faster Shutter Speed by default?
Got it. I’m seeing the difference between “sharp” and “tack sharp”, now that you mention it!
I’ve gone back to shooting in Manual as well recently. I was trying to use Aperture priority for a while but I was having way too many photos not coming out nicely because my shutter speed wasn’t fast enough. So now most of the time I’ve been putting on Auto ISO and controlling shutter speed and aperture when I don’t have time to do full Manual. I don’t believe there’s a setting to control shutter speed while in Aperture priority.
I don’t believe there’s a setting to control shutter speed while in Aperture priority.
There is 😉 . Put your camera in aperture mode, and manually set your iso. That’s what @jamesstaddon taught us to do at an ACTION workshop.
If you can control just two sides of your exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed, ISO), you virtually control the third. If I set a super wide aperture and a super high ISO, my camera is forced to go with a super fast shutter speed to reduce the light coming in. The “correct” exposure resulting might not be the exposure you want, but you’ll at least be in basic control of your shutter speed.I’m currently learning to use full manual and spot metering, and I think it’s improving my style! (It is taking time to get used to though).
Ok, well then let me clarify my statement, @loganlamar. I don’t believe there’s a setting to manually control shutter speed while in Aperture priority. 🙂
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