Great egret

[Jerry van Dijk]

This portrait of a Great egret was taken in a zoo, the reason why I was able to get up close.
Panasonic DMC-FZ18, 83mm, ISO 100, F/4.2, 1/125 sec. Cranked up contrast considerably to make the bird stand out from it's background and enhance details in the feathers. Did a bit of sharpening too.

This is my first posting on the site. The work of my colleague Krijn Trimbos and his ongoing enthousiasm about photography encouraged me to take up my old hobby in digitized form. Being a newbie, I'm still a bit anxious about my photograph quality and my image processing abilities, hence a post in the Eager to learn section. Comments and critiques are very welcome!
Adding to my anxiousness is the fact that I deliberately chose NOT to buy a DSLR, but instead bought a Panasonic DMC-FZ18. The main reason: most of my photographing is done during long hikes, more often than not accompanied by my children and all the stuff that comes with them (diapers!!), so I chose a small and lightweight camera. I was pretty pleased with image quality shown in forums and content with results so far. Only in difficult light conditions, the noise reduction can really mess up the image.
Let me know what you think!

[Katie Rupp]

Welcome to the ETL forum, Jerry, it's a great place to learn and some of the regulars are very good at reposting images with improvements which really helps to understand the advice/suggestions. Your egret has good detail and I like the black BG (background) although I would clone out the white spots; it looks like the top of the head and beak have blown highlights and I would wish for a better HA (head angle)---turned more toward you. That said, I like it!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jerry - welcome to THE BPN FAMILY.

Agree with everything katie said - when you post your images it helps if you post the full technical details - so everyone can see what is going on and help you out. That said yo really need to be able to control your camera, IE: in AV mode and be able to use the exposure compensation to get the correct exposure.
Not sure how you will go with this using your camera - I have no experience with that particular camera - maybe one of the other members might...


keep them coming

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I like the contrast between the subject and background. Would this be an example of adding exposure compensation of up to +1 1/3 as we have posted in one of the threads? (You don't include this spec) Agree that it would have been improved with the HA at least parallel or looking towards you.

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome Jerry !!!!

First of all let my congratulate you on the camera selection. Its best to buy what you need not what you want. Your selection will not hold you back and will be able to capture some fine images. About the only thing to keep in mind those cameras are poor performers with regards to noise so try keeping the ISO low and careful with exposure !!!

Good question Jackie Just guessing the exposure comp here has to be on the negative side since the subject is taking up a good chunk of the image. Whites reflect lots of light back to the sensor.

Jerry I like how you tried to get close to fill the frame. As was suggested do pay attention to the head angle and its no different than taking a picture of a kid close up looking away. In this image the oof white areas detract and would have like to see you at a lower angle. Exposure wise I'm guessing this was made without compensation? Looking forward to more !!!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Big thanx for your swift responses! I totally agree with your comments about the HA. Now it seems like the beak is at an odd angle with the rest of the head. I suspect that removing the white spots in the background as was suggested will add to this effect, because any sense of background (and with it, perspective) will disappear. And it might look like the bird was cut out of another picture and pasted in a computer generated black background...
Re. exposure: as Alfred suggested, no compensation. The exposure part is really my learning area!! That said, I do have full control over all camera features, including exposure compensation (which I did use in other photographs) and manual focus, comparable to any DSLR, so no worries there.
Any other tech specs I forgot to mention with my photograph? I'll try to work out how to convert the focal lengths for this camera to the 35 mm equivalent for ease of comparison.