Blended Feathers

[lokes]

I've just migrated to a G3. This is the first camera I've owned that requires any forthought at all. I'm clueless to apetures and F-stops but I really want to learn.

Here's a pic I took today of some birds and I would like feedback that can help me understand various functions and how they can improve my work.

I felt that a slower aperture in this photo may have made the birds stand out more instead of blending into the tree.

What do you think.

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/lokes/Misc/birdsgood.jpg

[henkbos]

Hi Lokes, welcome to the forum.

First of all there is no such thing as a faster aperture :-).
There are slower and faster shutterspeeds and there are smaller and larger apertures. They are related to each other. Example: an aperture of 8 and a shutterspeed of 1/125 sec gives me the same amount of light as an aperture of 5.6 and a speed of 1/250 or 11 and 1/60. In other words: small peephole: longer time, large peephole: shorter time.
Chosing the right combination might be tricky and their is a lot on the web that you can find about this subject. Start with Kodak.com
This knowledge will not improve this picture though. Their is too much of everything: various birds in and behind branches, lots of braches. Try to single out one bird for a close-up.

Good luck