First time shooting

Smithymike123

Smithymike123

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Hello,

I recently bought a digital camera, nothing amazing, an old Olympus. Took it out today and took this photo. Aimed to start out by capturing relatively still views. I've altered the brightness slightly due to the image being slightly too dark, probably due to me not quite understanding how to work my camera properly yet. Any suggestions on how it could be made better please say :)

11539247_10155791357060344_7193958189190561367_o.jpg
 
what model olympus is it first and foremost as that can help determine camera settings are availble for you and hopefully see where improvements can be made.
onto the shot.
Theres a few problems here, first the duck facing away from you. now obviously its in the "wilds" so to speak so its not like you can pick it up and turn it around or give it some directions as to what way to face, but witha little patience normally these kind of birds will turn and face you giving a better view rather than its backside.
it looks like a very bright day too and going by the shdaows my guess is the sun was very high in the sky so most likely between 11am-1pm. this has meant the duck has some bright light on the top of its head but the main body and face has been left in deep shadows and your camera has metered for the background resulting in the duck being quite badly underexposed and losing alot of detail in the neck and face area.
whats also odd is the duck seems to be standing straight but you have a very steep sloping background too and the picture needs adjusting be several degrees to straighten in out.
focus wise its hard to tell in the face area but the body seems to be in focus on the wing , though the underside looks a little soft so maybe your DoF was a little to wide.

if you can let us know what camera model and the EXIF of the shot ( shutter speed, ISO , DOF ) and what settings you had the camera on that will help then to work out what best adjustments can be made.
 
Thanks for your reply,

The camera is an Olympus SP-500UZ. I'm not sure of the EXIF of the shot. If it is retrievable off the camera, the image is no longer on there so I doubt I could find out. Thanks for the advice, still trying to get my head around all this so all good help.
 
the exif will be on the image. just right click the jpeg, click properties and then the details tab and it should tell you what settings you shot at
 
The exif has been stripped from the image. But at a glance it looks as though you've exposed for the entire scene. The duck and the background. This has lead to the duck becoming underexposed. The easiest way to deal is to use a little fill flash. This will bring the subject and background closer in dynamic range (the difference between very bright white and deep shadow) and hopefully avoid the underexposed duck. Alternatively you could say hang the background. And expose purely for the duck letting the background overexpose. This may, or mayn't produce acceptable results too
 
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Hello, welcome to the forum :)

Two very simple things - firstly the photo is wonky which you can tell by the water in the horizon being at an angle. Secondly, the duck is backlit which isn't normally a good thing in such a high contrast situation. The key to photography is light, understand the light and your pictures will improve massively; for example here you have a high sun which is backlighting your subject, personally I wouldn't have bothered taking the shot as I would have known the result would be less than great (the whole head is in shadow and that's the bit you want to see).

Hope that doesn't sound harsh - it's just two very simple things that if you think about prior to shooting (so you can position yourself appropriately) will make vast improvements to your photos.
 
What Ned said.
On a bright day you need to shoot with the sun behind you so it shows up all those lvely colours birds have in their plumage, but only really show in the right light. Otherwise, as you have found, you get an underexposed bird and an overexposed background. Shooting with light reflecting off water makes it worse. Mallard are quite obliging subjects so give you plenty of opportunity for thinking about light, composition, background etc.
 
Thanks everyone, really helpful. I'll put all your advice to use and hopefully show some improved photos next time.
 
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