Astaroth pics

[Astaroth]

Just a few to start things off with - London Zoo & flowers

Unfortunately still getting used to the 350D and 1/2 my shots from the zoo were taken with the wrong whitebalance and without RAW files

[hutters]

Very nice.

What lens(es) were those pics taken with? Also do you have any exif data for each of them?

[Astaroth]

I have the exif data at home but the zoo pictures were taken using a EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and the flowers with EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM

[bowenjones]

Great shots
I particularly like the first two pics as I'm waiting for the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS to be delivered. Were they hand held?
Love the colour and detail in the flower shots. I'm not in a position to get a macro lens yet but it's on my wish list.
Btw Astaroth, your thread has the pleasure of hosting my 1000th post. I'm now officially a Senior member (taken me long enough)

[Astaroth]

I am honoured to host your 1000th post :D

The 2 zoo photos were hand held shots - the 2 tulips were done using a tripod.

It is annoying that the plants were in the foreground of the monkey picture but unfortunately there were too many kids around and it was difficult to get into possition (esp as the kids were making the monkeys jumpy)

[stevegreen]

Really nice pictures. I like the bokeh on the first, was that at full zoom?

[Astaroth]

Exif data:

Picture 1 - F5.6, 1/200, ISO 100, 300mm

Picture 2 - F5, 1/250, ISO 100, 220mm

Picture 3 - F8, 1/3, ISO 100, 60mm

Picture 4 - F2.8, 1/15, ISO 100, 60mm

[bowenjones]

Astaroth, was the first shot taken as a portrait or was it a crop from a landscape shot?
The reason I'm asking is because some reports suggest that earlier versions of the lens suffered from soft images when shot as a portrait. To me, that looks really sharp and, considering it was taken at the full 300mm, pretty impressive

[Astaroth]

It was taken as portrait, IS enabled and without tripod. Post production was resizing, small amount of gausian blur added to the bg/ unsharp mask to the foreground. It probably didnt need any unsharp mask to be honest but it is too much of a habit to stop

[bowenjones]

Nothing wrong with using a bit of unsharp mask. You can increase the sharpness level in camera but I always prefer to do it on photoshop just in case the camera over sharpens the image.

[Astaroth]

Went to Leeds Castle (near Maidstone not Leeds) and got a few more pictures.... unfortunately the light was fading and didnt get much chance to take pictures of birds in flight which is what i was wanting practice at.

Any how... feel free to comment:

Jail Bird
EF-S 60mm, F/10, 1/25s, ISO 100



In flight
EF 75-300mm IS - 300mm, F/5.6, 1/500s, ISO 100




Not for much longer
EF 75-300mm IS - 300mm, F/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 100



Brambles
EF-S 60mm, F/4.5, 1/640s, ISO 100



Seeing as I was at a castle
EF-S 60mm, F/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 100

[electrolyte]

love the first two of the monkey. Your IS lens is very impressive - might have to get me one of those...