Ducks!

[Airo]

Hi,this is my first time posting. I just got a D60 with kit lens in June and have been taking many pictures. This is from a visit to the park near my house.

[tirediron]

Not bad.

1. This has potential, but the litter and excess background don't add much to the image. Try and clean up things like the cup before you shoot. A tighter crop might also help to focus attention on the birds.

2. A bit centered and cropped vertically just a little tightly. Also about 2/3 stop over-exposed.

3. Really nice imag, love the expression on the rear duck's "face". Well captured.

The key to wildlife photography is focus, and the critical focus point is the eyes. Unfortunately, in both 2 and 3, the eyes are soft with the exception of the foreground duck in #3. Had you the extra DoF to keep both ducks in sharp focus, this would doubtless have been a winner.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

[Marko]

First off - I gotta say - I love ducks and these ducks are real cuties!

Overall - These are well done IMO

Shot 1 - I really like the straggly feathers on the lower duck. The lighting seems pretty good overall. I might burn in (darken) the top duck a wee bit and make the lower duck the main star.

2 - Very cute and very nice, though a bit overexposed as tirediron suggests. Again I would burn in all around the duck and a wee bit where the feathers are clipping (going almost completely white and losing tone)

3 - Also very cute and cool capture. For 2 ducks with eyes on different planes you could have closed down 2 or 3 stops for greater depth of field (as t.i suggested as well). Again parts of the feathers are losing tone and should be burnt in.

Hope that helps and welcome!

Marko

[Airo]

wow! Thanks for the replies. I'm still new at this and these pointers really do help.

[Travis]

the technical issues have all been mentioned so I'll just say great capture on image #3.... as Marko has said.... stopping down would have brought both of them into focus but it's still a great shot...

enjoy your D60 and welcome....

[merman]

in Shot 2 i have to say i like the overexposure, maybe its my rookie eyes but i think it adds alot of character to the picture! Aslo IMO the overexposure for me really makes the features of the duck face stand out from the rest of the picture kind of a cropping without cropping effect lol

I really really like this shot
--Scotty