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 02/10/2005 08:39:09 PM · #1


I love shooting wildlife and sometimes I get a photo that is very hard and lucky to get. The photo of this osprey carrying dinner took litterly days of sitting on a boat watching them. If there is anything I have learned, it's patience. This photo earned a mediocre 6.1 in the best of 2004. What could I do to get higher scores?. I even had 4 2's laid on me and 8 3's. I can't imagine anyone not seeing what it takes to get shots like this. Is it that wildlife is not so popular? I get coments about lighting in wildlife photos which can be slightly controlled but not alot of options are available like in a studio. Maybe I'm just overrating my shot myself, but I would like some input as to how I can score higher than 112th.

Thanks for your input.
 02/10/2005 08:51:02 PM · #2
Seems like your shot only lacked a little post-processing. I just boosted the constrast with a slight curve adjustment, boosted the saturation a little, and a slight 67%,1.1,2 USM. Oh, I cropped it a little, just to suit my personal tastes. Check out the tutorials under the "Learn" menu link for more ways to improve your shots.
02/10/2005 08:55:00 PM · #3
George,

Take heart in that it is a fantastic shot! I am sure you realize that some voters may not have given it their highest score because of some personal taste: such as more lead time infront of the bird or captureing all of the wing, or a low saturated sky. But as for those 2's and 3' and even the fours. . . get over them. Those are probably from the people who don't have the patience to sit for hours, and hours waiting for that right moment; or, they are probably rationalizing that if they pulvarize your photo with a low score theirs will end up higher. All I can add is take a look at the people who are commenting and giving you the high marks. Or especially those that affer positive ways to improve. Take a look at their bio. My guess is your are going to find that those are the people who count. Hang in there and keep up the great work. BOL
 02/10/2005 09:08:16 PM · #4
Originally posted by GeorgeLentz:


I love shooting wildlife and sometimes I get a photo that is very hard and lucky to get. The photo of this osprey carrying dinner took litterly days of sitting on a boat watching them. If there is anything I have learned, it's patience. This photo earned a mediocre 6.1 in the best of 2004. What could I do to get higher scores?. I even had 4 2's laid on me and 8 3's. I can't imagine anyone not seeing what it takes to get shots like this. Is it that wildlife is not so popular? I get coments about lighting in wildlife photos which can be slightly controlled but not alot of options are available like in a studio. Maybe I'm just overrating my shot myself, but I would like some input as to how I can score higher than 112th.

Thanks for your input.


Do you want to know what you could do to improve the photo or the next photo?

The photo you have is good. Not much you can do. The next photo though could be much better with a little more planning and yet more patience. To be a well accepted bird photo it is usually best to shoot it one of two ways. Either get the whole bird into the frame or crop a head shot. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are exactly that - exceptions.
 02/10/2005 10:13:43 PM · #5
The trouble is, George, that what we encounter out there in the fresh air, where the wild things are, and what we bring back on that little Flash card are not exactly the same moments. They may be little rectangular 'takes' of it, perfectly timed and reasonably captured, but do they do justice to either bird, bass or our heightened awareness and appreciation, while we breathe the same air and listening to the sound of their wings and voices?

The camera can be a cold ass. It is easy to use it like a gun: bang - Capture, which we examine for 'correct' values: exposure, sharpness with motion, framing, you know. We are satified, and we should be, because this part of the process alone can be hard enough.

But how can we get the sounds, the smells, the whole sensory array involved (after all, this was it, wasn't it, before there was a photo of it?). And here's where I agree with the previous posters. We have to try to recreate that moment, in all its breath-taking glory by post-processing.

More often than not, we cannot, simply, replicate it in the photo, because there just isn't sufficient information in that little thing to do it with. The only thing we can do is to make a new moment equal to the one we remember. Post-processing tools let us manipulate light, shadow, hue and colour. We can isolate a subject in multiple ways, we can choose not to. We can enlarge, reduce its size, alter its absolute position within a frame by cropping. We can flatten depth or proliferate it, add or subtract contrast und so weiter.

I think, if we do this well (which is to say 'credibly') we will have something pristine, something worth, say, an 8, from me and a 10 from all the other junkies who give me 4s for my pristines. ;-)
 02/13/2005 10:31:43 PM · #6
Thanks for all your replies. I'm here to learn and I take it all in.
 02/13/2005 10:58:21 PM · #7
I have had similar experiences with my wildlife shots, I think folks who do not take a lot of wildlife do not realize what goes into getting those kinds of shots. I know with heron shots I have spent literally weeks/months hanging out and watching them to learn just when they are going to fly etc. I try to get personal satisfaction from the time I spend learning about the critters than about the results on dpc. I completely agree btw, that a great wildlife shot is much harder to get than a studio shot. Studio shots everything is in the control of the photographer, in wildlife nothing is. Not the light, not the subject, and in a lot of cases not the compostion.
It is a very nice shot, keep it up and don't get discouraged : )
Besides the animals and children need us to take their pix with all the development, and poachers, and hunters in the world soon there won't be many critters left in the wild.
 02/14/2005 12:00:41 AM · #8
Originally posted by GeorgeLentz:


I love shooting wildlife and sometimes I get a photo that is very hard and lucky to get. The photo of this osprey carrying dinner took latterly days of sitting on a boat watching them. If there is anything I have learned, it's patience. This photo earned a mediocre 6.1 in the best of 2004. What could I do to get higher scores?. I even had 4 W's laid on me and 8 W's. I can't imagine anyone not seeing what it takes to get shots like this. Is it that wildlife is not so popular? I get comments about lighting in wildlife photos which can be slightly controlled but not alto of options are available like in a studio. Maybe I'm just overrating my shot myself, but I would like some input as to how I can score higher than Th.

Thanks for your input.


Hi, First off let me say you photograph is stunning but there are a few thing that is lacking for me and it may have been for others causing your score to be only 6.1+. You have a dust speck or a discoloration about 4:00 below the lowest leg from the bend. And the half eaten fish does not look natural to me or may I say as appealing. It would of looked better with a whole fish. IMO when you take a picture of something in flight like this it is better to get the whole bird in the picture than to crop out part of it. By cropping out the remaining part of the subject it left with little depth perception whereas if you would of had the whole subject in frame my eyes would of been more at ease. If there would of been a background to give some perspective to the photograph then cropping out part of the subject would of been OK IMO. Hope that makes since. As Is I would of scored it a 7 but with the minor differences I mentioned above I may have scored it a 8-10. You have very good detail and it is a very good shot. The above is just what I would say makes or breaks a shot like this.
JUST MY 2 Cents.
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