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Dave Stacey
{K:117924} 4/16/2008
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Lookin' good, Andre! Very nicely composed, and excellent focus and exposure. I like the dof you've used here, too. Looks like you and the new gear will get along just fine!
Dave.
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Satish Sundar
{K:576} 4/16/2008
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Great picture. I think you could have cropped to give the birds more emphasis. Basically you can crop the last blue bar towards the right and the gray bar on the top left, also the top part. Also the blue bars slightly draws away attention from the main subject!. If you use Adobe PS, then you can actually remove the gray bar and the blue bars in the background. Also the bird that is away from the view is a bit not sharp... just see the eyes of the 2 birds and you will notice that the bird in the front has more sharpness and hence can see more features.
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Satish Sundar
{K:576} 4/16/2008
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Great picture. I think you could have cropped to give the birds more emphasis. Basically you can crop the last blue bar towards the right and the gray bar on the top left, also the top part. Also the blue bars slightly draws away attention from the main subject!. If you use Adobe PS, then you can actually remove the gray bar and the blue bars in the background. Also the bird that is away from the view is a bit not sharp... just see the eyes of the 2 birds and you will notice that the bird in the front has more sharpness and hence can see more features.
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Stan Ciszek
{K:31787} 4/16/2008
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I agree with Dave comment,excellent capture Andre,
Looks like just get married.
My best.
Stan
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/16/2008
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Thanks Dave,
So far, so good!!
It really is a pleasure to use.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/16/2008
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Thanks Stan,
These two seemed to like the camera. :)
They were very cooperative.
Andre
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/16/2008
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Thanks for the visit and comment Satish,
Yes, I agree that I could have done all those changes, but this composition was intentional. The DOF was also intentional. The only thing that is supposed to be in focus was the first bird.
All the changes that you mention would also make a good image. This is one of many taken that day. I do have a few closer cropped with less in the background. Maybe I will post one later.
Andre
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Satish Sundar
{K:576} 4/16/2008
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Andre, sorry for posting my comments twice! Hit the button twice!. Agree with you if you wanted to make the DOF as intentional.
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/16/2008
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Hi Satish,
I think several people had a problem with double comments yesterday. Maybe some kind of website bug? I also did not recieve email notification of your comments. I only found them when scrolling down the comments section.
Oh Well, thanks for the commnents.
Andre
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bill smith
{K:8373} 4/16/2008
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Andre,
Next time you go out try this: set the camera to ISO 400. put it in apture Priorty and set that as low as it will go,somewhere around 5.6. Depending on the light it should get your shutter speed up past 2000. I think you'll be very surprised at how sharp your images will become with no loss to the exposer??? Try it,you'll like it!!
Bill
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/16/2008
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Thanks Bill,
I absolutely will try that!
I've noticed a lot of the good wildlife phototgraphers here using similar kinds of settings. The setting that I used for these first tryouts was right out of the Ken Rockwell guide to the D200. Just a basic setting for all round use. Of course you realize, I wasn't bothered by the lack of sharpness of the second Gull. I just let the Auto focus take care of the first Gull and the rest was basically Auto DOF. I do like the image that way in this case.
I'm looking forward to trying all kinds of things.
Thanks again
Andre
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bill smith
{K:8373} 4/17/2008
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Oh yeah, I like this image too Andre. I know exallty what you were going for and it worked great. Just wanted to have you try what I was talking about the next time you go out.
Bill
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/17/2008
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Hi Bill, I understand.
I have my camera set right now for tomorrow. It should be nice and sunny tomorrow, so just right for the high shutter speed @400.
I'll keep you posted.
Andre
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Lugal Sar
{K:3541} 4/17/2008
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Very good..
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/19/2008
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Thanks Lugal!
I'm glad you like it!
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:98595} 4/23/2008
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I find this one even better than the previous, Andre! And I think now that the contrast to the background indeed plays a good role. The front gull is so much more "well defined" here, and I seem to like that. The lighting on the bird is extremely well balanced, and so it has a very tangible plasticity. Especially it's rounded shape under its head is rounded in 3D. And the head itself too.
On this one I do recognize that there are not as strong details of the feather dress on the white parts of the bird, but I don't miss them at all. I think that this is a good example of how a bird can be captured so very well in its property of light/shadow game.
But I fond the composition also good because of the enhanced sence for the depth of scene, from which you separated the protagonist in a way that fits tightly the overall look.
Good work and definitely an additional direction to follow.
Cheers!
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 4/24/2008
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Thanks for another great comment Nick!
This series of gull images was all taken with a kind of "default" setting recommended on the "Ken Rockwell Guide to the D200 site. I was pretty fortunate to find these suitable subjects in great lighting that day.
I'm trying a few different things with different settings now. Funny thing is you can be all set up to try something with these birds and that's just when they don't show up. :)
Patience is the name of the game sometimes. :)
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:98595} 4/25/2008
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Hi Andre!
Well, I know that patience. Believe me, they have their spies and informants everywhere, sending messages to each other: "Watch out! He is trying to photograph us!" There is a plot, a conspiration against photographers! I knew that all the time! They do that for raising their prices in the modelling market;-)
But thanks heavens there are always some double spies that are willing to cooperate for a good piece of your sandwich! ;-) Traitors can be very useful! ;-)
But seriously now, what kind of default settings are avilable. May I guess the typical things, like portrait, macro, landscape, etc, or are they more "technical" like Aperture Priority, Shutter Proirity, etc? Or perhaps both?
Cheers!
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 5/1/2008
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Hi Nick,
These two didn't even worry for payment of any kind. I think they get fed well enough by the marina. There is always someone with a bag of old bread.
The D200 doesn't have any little icons on it that automatically set the aperature to f22 for landscapes or give a nice soft warm image for portraits of wives and girlfriends. :)
There is Aperture priority, shutter priority. program mode (for cpu lenses) and of course Manual. One thing that you can do is create your own little programs for certain situations. You can make it as detailed as you want to. The camera has lots of bells and whistles, but I find it very intuitive. I think that a decent background of experience with both digital and film is a great help. As we have talked about before, it makes shooting much more enjoyable when you have a little background knowledge.
It didn't take me very long to start taking images with my old manual focus, non cpu lens. It was almost just like the old days... without the wait of developing. :)
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:98595} 5/4/2008
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Hi Andre!
So they guys are... untouchable, ey? No corruption in nature can be bad photographer! ;-)
Thanks a lot for the info about the D200. It sounds very nice and reasonably made camera. Actually it is exactly this kind of automatic that my T90 has. I find it much better, since it tells you what the camera does but not what you have to do for a portrait or a landscape.
I also find the possibility of making the one programs a very good idea! So, it's your choise and not that of Nikkon, or any other manufacturer. Great thing to have, really!
And of course a good background of experience is extremely helpful since you can get on bord much easier, and have also great fun since you can exploit all posibilities. Still it's good to hear that the D200 is also well designed for intuitive use. Sometimes I really have to wonder if some guy of the designer team took the time to go for a real life photo session.;-) But is seems that the D200 was made with the photographer in mind, and not some kind of new trendy fashion. One has really to admire such craftmanship.
But of course the best thing is that you can still go for manual, which is the only real thing! ;-)
Cheers!
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 5/6/2008
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Hi Nick,
One of the things I like about the D200 is that it feels like a real camera. It is a nice weight, and the buttons and knobs are big enough for my clumsy fingers and thumbs to work. :)
As you say, some of these modern tools like cameras, cell phones and Ipods just don't seem to be made for humans. At least not us old humans from the mid 20th century.
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:98595} 5/17/2008
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Same goes for me exactly the same way, Andre! When I see those microscopic buttons I always ask myself, how can a human being operate them? With a pen? OK, I want to shoot an image... errrm, do you perhaps have a pen? ;-) Or match or something? ;-)
What you describe about the D200 is exactly the feel and handling of the T90 which has the nickname "the tank". It is solid and stable. You don't have to worry about loosing its structural integrity with time and thus also having less and less quality of the images.
And to tell you the truth, I doubt it really that most of the thingies of pour days are so durable and trustworthy. I had a small camera (not a D-SLR) from Sony in my hands last week. Well, what can I tell you? Hold it a bit harder and it already starts deforming. You can really feel how the body's shape changes according to how you hold it. A camera for deformation, a new domain of photographic experience, I guess! ;-)
Cheers!
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:56512} 5/20/2008
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Exactly Nick,
I think most of today's cameras and cell phones are made to last about 5 minutes, until the next big advancement has to be promoted. :)
Give me the heavy feel of an old fashioned camera any day.
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:98595} 5/22/2008
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Exactly, Andre! And we all support the economic stability of the manufacturing company!
Well, I want that heavy and stable feel any day, too. I just fall down too often while walking my ways on the mountains, and I am a hell of happy guy that the camera and the lenses didn't even notice that.
The design-production-update cycle gets faster and faster, but unfortunately our salaries don't follow that tempo! ;-)
Cheers!
Nick
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