More from this summer

[mnfishingal]

Here are a few more from this summer. I'd appreciate any suggestions others may have to improve them. I'm not very good at photoshop and I suppose for a few of these, its just a matter of holding the camera more steady when things unfold without a tripod set up so that the shot is crisper/more clear. Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

PS I still haven't figured out how to make the pics smaller to put on here.

[reinhard1]

i'm not a great photographer, but in my opinion to get these shots you are doing something right and very well. good luck.

[dockothebay]

Very nice environmental images!! I love the kingfisher and the heron. The fox kits are darn cute too. You're right that you can't always have a tripod set up for this kind of shot - we have had a kingfisher near our cabin for 2 years now and I can't for the life of me get a decent shot.

Learning to do a little bit of sharpening in photoshop or even one of the online services like photobucket would give them a little more pop - altho the heron appears pretty sharp here. Did you upload with the tool here on the forum HSOforum? I've found you loose a little sharpness here, but it does the sizing for you

Any way - great shots! Thanks for sharing

[Dbl]

What a great group of photos! That is quite a summer you've had with the variety of subjects! It appears as if a few of the shots are at a slow shutter speed or the focus just missed a touch (First hawk, hummingbird, kingfisher). There is no EXIF information so it is a bit hard to say what the problem is without camera settings.

The colors are a bit flat but it could be that they are in the Adobe color space instead of sRGB that most web browsers recognize. Your EXIF will show you that as well. The eagle shot has a fair amount of haloing present around the bird. This is likely caused by oversharpening.

Don't get to hung up on some of these issues, you have a wonderful set of subjects captured here, especially that last shot. Keep shooting and finding more subjects like these and do some reading on various photoshop techniques (sharpening, contrast adjustments with curves and levels, etc.)and you will begin to pick up on various methods of enhancing your work!

You may want to investigate picking up a book on using your particular version of photoshop or elements. I would recommend any book by Scott Kelby.

[micpic]

Nice series of shots. I really like the Kingfisher, they got that punkie look. Can't help you with photoshop cause I'm still practicing.

[Vicki_Jones]

Wow, how long do you have to lay on your belly in the elements for the opportunity of these shots?? I'm very much a novice so only can only thank you for sharing and tell you how much I enjoyed your photos. As for photo shop I'm leaning by the trial and err process with a little bit of reading thrown in. Asking the "youngins" I am lucky to know has given me clues also.... I know a very gifted 14 year old and he hasn't steered me wrong yet. LOL Thanks again for sharing. ) Vicki

[finnbay]

Great variety and "expressions"! Like the heron best!

[umichjesse]

Those pictures are great. For whatever reason, the color was a little flat on my screen. I hope you don't mind, I edited using Microsoft Office Picture Manager and came up with this.

[umichjesse]

[umichjesse]

[eyeguy 54]

great stuff mn gal.

[Canon Guy]

Great series!

[mnfishingal]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'm really hoping to take a class this fall on using Photoshop. It all seems greek to me right now and other than using the crop, auto enhance and some of the other simple features, it seems a bit daunting to me. I'm curious if anyone uses the Corel photo program and if it is as good as Photoshop in terms of quality without what seems like a steep learning curve with Photoshop?

Thanks again for the encouragement and suggestions!

[dockothebay]

I have looked at Corel, but not really used it. I would Take Dan's suggestion and get a Kelby book (they really are easy to read and learn from) then just tackle one feature at a time in Photoshop - I've been doing that (well, I was doing it at the beginning of the summer!) and it really is not that tough to learn when you're only thinking about one thing at a time - sharpening/brightness/cloning, etc. Then if you can take a class too, all the better! It just seems like PS is the program that covers it all!

just my 2 cents - you've got some really nice images already!

[Gillie]

Love the pictures! I liked the first heron one, best! Seems the colors pop and it's more natural. Mind you, I'm no photographer, fine art and interior design is my field. I really liked all the photos! Thanks for sharing.