1st Timer - Banham Zoo - C&C welcomed

I picked up my first DSLR yesterday (450D) and promptly decided to go to the Zoo today to test it out.

I'm new to all this so i'd really like to advice/ critique on the photos below. Whilst i'm quite happy with them i know there is room for improvement. Photos were taken with the standard kit lens. (the 55-250 is already on the shopping list ). The weather wasn't great but i played around with a load of different settings to see which worked best.

I don't think you can get much better with the kit lens. Maybe just a tad soft. Good shots thought. Eagle's head is a little overexposed. Were these taken in Raw? Any post processing done to them? I can't read the exif. I hope someone else chimes in with some tips for you. I am new to the Dslr too. Just received my 450d last week. You'll like the 55-250. So far it hasn't left my camera.

Very nice, I like one and two....

angel m. leal jr.

Meerkats

Newtophoto wrote in post #7179232
I don't think you can get much better with the kit lens. Maybe just a tad soft. Good shots thought. Eagle's head is a little overexposed. Were these taken in Raw? Any post processing done to them? I can't read the exif. I hope someone else chimes in with some tips for you. I am new to the Dslr too. Just received my 450d last week. You'll like the 55-250. So far it hasn't left my camera.

Thanks,

I thought they were a little soft as well, could this be down to the poor weather conditions of is it something i can improve on?

The photos were shot in jpg (the highest jpg setting), no post processing other than cropping a few of them in photoshop. I'm not sure how i get the exif data from the photos to be honest. is there a simple way to cut and paste from the original images?

Andrew

Pretty good first shots, mainly crisp and clear with good DOF.

My biggest nit is the whites, they are quite hot and are on the verge of being blown.

I don't know if your camera has spot metering, if it has I would expose for the whites.

If not, try bracketing exposures from average (evaluative)-leaning towards underexposure (-stops)

That should expose the whites OK, you can pull back any loss of detail in midtones/shadows in PS quite easily.

Love the first

thanks for the kind words guys.

Les - thanks for the feedback. i too thought the whites were a little too bright. i'm using the 450D so ill read up on spot metering and exposure on whites, thanks again