I think that f/16 is too high for this purpose. Going to a wider aperture would have reduced your ISO.

The sky seems slightly over-exposed. Maybe a vignette would help?
Also, maybe a little saturation wouldn’t hurt…

As far as composition goes, I would say that maybe a little more grass and a little less sky would be good. The rule of thirds was applied, but the horizon line seem more like a fourth of the picture rather than a third.

Also, remember that picture quality starts to degrade around f/16.…Read more

Merci aussi pour répondant en français.

Bienvenue!
——————————————————————-
It’s even better! Excellent job!

Thank you also for responding in French

You’re welcome!

Perhaps I could use the retouch function in Windows’s Photos App to remove the lens flare in the picture

Personally I would rather use the clone tool in GIMP. (Press “c” for the clone tool. Then hover your cursor beside your lens flare, and press Ctrl and your left mouse button to get the portion of the picture you want to clone over your l…Read more

Photo 1 appears to be somewhat out of focus.

The fact that this shot was taken at f/29 doesn’t help neither. Above f/13-f/16, aperture starts to degrade the resolution. My 75-300mm could go to f/45 but picture quality was horrible!
But I understand also why you raised your aperture that high. You just have to compromise somewhere when you want a…Read more

Photo 1 appears to be somewhat out of focus.

The fact that this shot was taken at f/29 doesn’t help neither. Above f/13-f/16, aperture starts to degrade the resolution. My 75-300mm could go to f/45 but picture quality was horrible!
But I understand also why you raised your aperture that high. You just have to compromise somewhere when you want…Read more

I’ll suggest also to remove the tiny ray on the left side of your picture.

1. Include complete body parts. Be careful not cropping part of the head, or leaving part of an arm out of the frame, for example. I suggest also to keep some ”breathing space” all around the person.

2. Check the eyes’ expression and make sure your camera is focusing on them. You did a great…Read more

1. Include complete body parts. Be careful not cropping part of the head, or leaving part of an arm out of the frame, for example. I suggest also to keep some ”breathing space” all around the person.

2. Check the eyes’ expression and make sure your camera is…Read more

I notice that the tree in the background has kind of ”diamond” shapes instead of soft-edged circles in your bokeh. It’s the first time I notice a bokeh…Read more

Great colors! It’s nice to see the buds peeking out of the ice. Sweet reminder of springtime!

I know this is hard to achieve with a camera that has a tiny sensor, but I would suggest to try to keep your background as plain as possible. Maybe you could try to photograph a close-up of a branch or a bud…Read more

1. Light. The first picture looks a bit gray and dull, but probably that could be taken care of in post-processing. The second one has a much nicer lightning.

2. Environnement. Although the camera did a good job at focusing on the chicken and minimize the fence on your first…Read more

BTW, are you on Nature Friend Magazine’s site much?

No, I’m not (just a few quick glances).

I don’t know how to do a technical 1:1 crop, so this is as close as I can get.

If you have RawTherapee, open your picture, and simply press ”z” to get a 1:1 crop.

Question. How did you guess Rokinon?

Samyang and Rokinon are two leading manufacturers of 800mm mirror lenses. Well, not exactly, since Samyang is actually controlling Rokinon and other brands (you may have heard of Vivitar and Bower, which are also controlled by Samyang).
I’m pretty sure Canon doesn’t make mirror lenses, so it leaves me with…Read more

Question. How did you guess Rokinon?

Samyang and Rokinon are two leading manufacturers of 800mm mirror lenses. Well, not exactly, since Samyang is actually controlling Rokinon and other lenses brands (you may have heard of Vivitar and Bower, which are also controlled by Samyang).
I’m pretty sure Canon doesn’t make mirror lenses, so it leaves…Read more

Also, your bokeh is very clean, with almost no ”donuts effect” that seems to plague mirror lenses’ bokehs. Is this whole donut thing exagerated, or is it something to be careful…Read more

my 800mm mirror lens instead

Is it a Rokinon?

my 800mm mirror lens instead

a Rokinon?

When I compared your picture with the one I edited, I realized that I had added too much blur: both in the level of blur and in surface area (I think I blurred too much of the rock). As a result, the bird seemed to be “detached” from its surroundings. I think one of the main aims in editing these kind of pictures is to allow the bird to ble…

Read more

Do you think my camera (a Panasonic Lumix from about 2009) is harming the SD cards? Or am I just buying cheap cards and should spend more to get good ones?

I guess it is possible that your camera is corrupting your SD cards, but I’ll be prone to suspect the cheap SD cards instead. I know they are less expensive than name brand ones, but they…Read more

I had noticed that that left wheat ear wasn’t as sharp as it could have been. It looked like to me that the camera focused in on the top of the ear. I’m not exactly sure how that happened.

That’s weird, since usually sensors tend to focus on the nearest object from the camera. I am wondering if the camera wasn’t focusing on the ear on the rig…Read more

In terms of composition, I prefer the first one. The picture is nicely ”balanced” and there is plenty of breathing space.
It would have been neat, though, to have the left wheat ear tack sharp.

Also, maybe warming up the white balance a bit wouldn’t hurt.

@dan-cope had a very good idea about trying with more even light. I prefer these two over the first one, but the right top corner full of white stipes annoys me. Which one…Read more

@dan-cope had a very good idea about trying with more even light. I prefer these two over the first one, but the right top corner full of white stipes annoys me. Which one…Read more

First, the sensor is much bigger in a DSLR than in a P&S. You can’t expect to have the same dynamic range and ISO capabilities in a smaller sensor that you’ll expect to find in a bigger one.

Second, you’re condemned to shoot with only one lens with a P&S, while there’s many lenses available for DSLR for multiple purposes.…Read more

Bienvenue! Oui, à mon avis l’arrière-plan est beaucoup mieux maintenant. Toutefois, j’aurais peut-être mis le flou encore un peu plus fort.
Un détail que j’avais oublié: vous pouvez inverser la sélection en cliquant avec la touche droite de votre souris sur votre sélection et en allant sur ”Sélection” et ensuite ”Inver…Read more

Content que vous avez apprécié le tutoriel. Oui, à mon avis l’arrière-plan est beaucoup mieux maintenant. Toutefois, j’aurais peut-être mis le flou encore un peu plus fort.
Un détail que j’avais oublié: vous pouvez toujours inverser la sélection en cliquant avec la touche droite de votre souris sur votre sélection et en al…Read more

Perhaps you could take this shot when the entire scene would be in shade to make the lighting more even.

Good advice, @dan-cope!
Silly me, I wasted time trying to edit locally that picture to reduce the dynamic range with no success (even tried B&W). Didn’t even thought I could go reshoot later… 🙂 I just have to wait for a (nice) cloudy day,…Read more

Perhaps you could take this shot when the entire scene would be in shade to make the lighting more even.

Good advice, @dan-cope!
Silly me, I wasted time trying to edit locally that picture to reduce the dynamic range with no success (even tried B&W). Didn’t even thought I could go reshoot later… 🙂 I just have to wait for a (nice) cloudy…Read more