Squirrely friend

Just wondering what you think..... still trying to improve.

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I like how you were able to capture the squirrel's expression. However, I think there is too much contrast in the image and it looks kind of noisy. I see you shot this at ISO 640. In daylight, you can get a great exposure with ISO 100 or 200 and reduce the amount of noise. I would open up the aperture a little bit more from 5.6 in order to make the background less distracting. The subject is also slightly underexposed.

These are the things I would personally change about the image, but it's a solid start. Keep it up.

toastyphoto wrote in post #13560970
I like how you were able to capture the squirrel's expression. However, I think there is too much contrast in the image and it looks kind of noisy. I see you shot this at ISO 640. In daylight, you can get a great exposure with ISO 100 or 200 and reduce the amount of noise. I would open up the aperture a little bit more from 5.6 in order to make the background less distracting. The subject is also slightly underexposed.

These are the things I would personally change about the image, but it's a solid start. Keep it up.

Ok, I have to ask.... How do you find out all this info on my picture? Just wondering. I swear I don't see these things. I must have a completely different eye than others on this forum. Ugh, so frustrating at times. Every comment helps though and makes me more aware for sure! Thanks so much for the feedback!

Suomi wrote in post #13561108
Ok, I have to ask.... How do you find out all this info on my picture? Just wondering. I swear I don't see these things. I must have a completely different eye than others on this forum. Ugh, so frustrating at times. Every comment helps though and makes me more aware for sure! Thanks so much for the feedback!

If you use FIrefox as your browser, you can get an addon called EXIF VIEWER. With EXIF VIEWER, you can right clic an image and get all the information on how the image was shot, with all camera settings.

Or right click then image properties in Opera, no add-on needed.

toastyphoto wrote in post #13560970
In daylight, you can get a great exposure with ISO 100 or 200 and reduce the amount of noise.

That's not normally true when shooting squirrels in trees. Unless you're shooting in winter, the squirrel is always going to be in shade. Often the light simply can not penetrate the tree's canopy enough to allow you to shoot at lower ISO settings. I don't think I've ever been able to shoot squirrels at the ISO settings you recommend when they were in shade trees. I'm normally shooting them with my 100-400 and at 400mm my widest setting is f/5.6, but often my shutter speed was well below 1/100s and my ISO was always 400 or above.

Hmmm, I use Safari. I can "get info", but no ISO speed is shown. I honestly don't know a lot about shooting in different modes. I usually just adjust stuff as I go and forget what setting works for what when I want to do it again..:o Taking a class at end of January and cannot wait. Hopefully I learn a lot. In the mean time, I keep trying to get something that people, other than me, think are good as well.

Suomi wrote in post #13561108
Ok, I have to ask.... How do you find out all this info on my picture? Just wondering. I swear I don't see these things. I must have a completely different eye than others on this forum. Ugh, so frustrating at times. Every comment helps though and makes me more aware for sure! Thanks so much for the feedback!

If you're using a Mac, just open the photo in Preview and click on Tools>Show Inspector. Similarly, you could view the photo details in Photoshop.

Here's a short article with more details about EXIF data:

http://www.cellutips.c​om …ta-from-your-image-files/

bob_r wrote in post #13561594
That's not normally true when shooting squirrels in trees. Unless you're shooting in winter.

While I was speaking in general terms for shooting outdoors, that's a good point. It is important to take into account the amount of shade you're shooting in. The point I was getting at was that it's important to keep the ISO as low as possible while still maintaining the proper exposure to reduce the amount of noise in the image.

Suomi wrote in post #13561661
Hmmm, I use Safari. I can "get info", but no ISO speed is shown. I honestly don't know a lot about shooting in different modes. I usually just adjust stuff as I go and forget what setting works for what when I want to do it again..:o Taking a class at end of January and cannot wait. Hopefully I learn a lot. In the mean time, I keep trying to get something that people, other than me, think are good as well.

As long as you're enjoying your hobby, keep at it! You don't have to be a whiz at all the different camera settings overnight. Over time, as you learn more details about your camera, you'll find you will be able to get a tighter grain of control over your images, which in many cases will make things possible that weren't in the auto modes. But as long as you're shooting and continuing to learn, you're doing well!

Suomi wrote in post #13561661
Hmmm, I use Safari. I can "get info", but no ISO speed is shown. I honestly don't know a lot about shooting in different modes. I usually just adjust stuff as I go and forget what setting works for what when I want to do it again..:o Taking a class at end of January and cannot wait. Hopefully I learn a lot. In the mean time, I keep trying to get something that people, other than me, think are good as well.

You can get an exif reader here: http://homepage.mac.co​m/aozer/EV/

Here's a link to an article that explains the relationship between ISO, aperture settings and shutter speeds that you may find useful:
http://photo.net …perture-shutterspeed-iso/

These folks will teach you a lot. That said, I have yet to take a 'great' photo myself. I, too, am still learning... very slowly.

But, I just want to say I like that squirrel shot very much. Yes, it is a bit underexposed, but otherwise, it is very nice and pleasing to me.

You're off to a great start!

toastyphoto wrote in post #13562556
If you're using a Mac, just open the photo in Preview and click on Tools>Show Inspector. Similarly, you could view the photo details in Photoshop.

Here's a short article with more details about EXIF data:

http://www.cellutips.c​om …ta-from-your-image-files/

While I was speaking in general terms for shooting outdoors, that's a good point. It is important to take into account the amount of shade you're shooting in. The point I was getting at was that it's important to keep the ISO as low as possible while still maintaining the proper exposure to reduce the amount of noise in the image.

toastyphoto wrote in post #13562559
As long as you're enjoying your hobby, keep at it! You don't have to be a whiz at all the different camera settings overnight. Over time, as you learn more details about your camera, you'll find you will be able to get a tighter grain of control over your images, which in many cases will make things possible that weren't in the auto modes. But as long as you're shooting and continuing to learn, you're doing well!

bob_r wrote in post #13562932
You can get an exif reader here: http://homepage.mac.co​m/aozer/EV/

Here's a link to an article that explains the relationship between ISO, aperture settings and shutter speeds that you may find useful:
http://photo.net …perture-shutterspeed-iso/

icopus wrote in post #13563039
These folks will teach you a lot. That said, I have yet to take a 'great' photo myself. I, too, am still learning... very slowly.

But, I just want to say I like that squirrel shot very much. Yes, it is a bit underexposed, but otherwise, it is very nice and pleasing to me.

You're off to a great start!

Thanks everyone for the information! It is very helpful! Slowly learning thats for sure. I appreciate all feedback, makes me look deeper into my photos and try different things to achieve better ones.

bob_r wrote in post #13561594
That's not normally true when shooting squirrels in trees. Unless you're shooting in winter, the squirrel is always going to be in shade. Often the light simply can not penetrate the tree's canopy enough to allow you to shoot at lower ISO settings. I don't think I've ever been able to shoot squirrels at the ISO settings you recommend when they were in shade trees. I'm normally shooting them with my 100-400 and at 400mm my widest setting is f/5.6, but often my shutter speed was well below 1/100s and my ISO was always 400 or above.

I also use the 100-400 and often in shaded areas for wildlife stuff, and I completely agree with Bob. I don't know about the xsi, but when I used the 400d (xti I think?) the problem with that in this situation was that anything over 400 iso wasn't really acceptable... just too noisy. It was therefore necessary to drop my shutter speed to get (at least) 400 iso, and keep a steady hand (often braced against a tree/wall etc.).