Hunting Pictures

[Ambush]

Why are some the pics posted of such superb quality and some are just poop like mine [my pics, not my poop]?

I know a poor pic can't turn into a good one when posted.

Is it more the camera, camera settings, the computer program, storage device quality [SD etc.] or connection?

Some are of such clarity and good colour saturation that you can see the hairs on the animal's bloody flopping tongue.http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif

I have pics that look good when printed, but show poor quality when posted.

Hints and help from knowledgable ones would be appreciated.

[Steeleco]

I ALWAYS take my pictures with the camera set on it's highest setting, each time it's passed along or uploaded I think they loose some quality.

If you upload direct from your computer picture file to the site or a hosting site they almost always get compressed by the host site, but the quality remains pretty good in my experience.

PS moved to bugs and glitches for better response!

[proguide66]

While guideing for an outfitter who is also a writer and a bit of a ' outdoor personality' I learned some good tips.........
Before 'digital' came out , we would shoot a whole roll of film...usually you get lucky with one or two and nail that ' perfect pic'.....now its easier with the digies.....
1 . try NOT to have any part of the antler/horns between you and the lens.
2. although some tilll do it , try NOT to place your gun in the horns.....kills the majestic 'look' of your animal.....and as well hard to get a real look at what the trophy looks like.
3. if your mountain hunting , go the extra mile and place your trophy with an awesome back drop!!...sometimes you have to grunt a bit , but it pays large in the end.
4. carry a cloth to wipe off blood from the mouth/nose ect....as well , you can carry a bit of fishing line with you ti tie the muzzle closed for a 'head up' shot.
5. SMILE !......how many dudes you see with some kind of ' angry ' look in their photos...kills me.....lolol....and maybe drop the smoke out of your mouth!..lolol..
most of all I have found that taking LOTS of pictures from all angles and many settings on your camera pays.

[Sitkaspruce]

Get used to your camera, use it to take pictures of everything. Since it is digital, take as many pictures as possible...and do not look at each one after each photo. Use the highest mega pixal setting and if you have some different photo settings, try them out as well. I usually take between 10-15 picts of anything I am interested in, record the settings I used for each picture, use the computer to go through each one and choose the best. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but once you get used to your camera, you will know what settings to use and no longer need to record the info.

It took me about a month of taking pictures to figure out what was best for each situation.

Cheers

SS

[PGK]

Hold the camera still and use the highest quality setting. Holding it still matters the most though. If you shake, you blur.
Light is the next biggest one. Pics in low light will always suffer, especially with point and shoot cameras with small diameter lenses. Not a lot of room there to gather light.
Also remember to let your camera focus. Most point and shoots have a 2 stage shutter. Hold it down half way until it beeps or gives you some indication it focused. If it didn't focus on what you wanted it to, redo it.

[Mr. Dean]

I think what your seeing is compression distortion. I resize mine to fit the comp screen before loading on to a website.

[wetcoastwillie]

Why are some the pics posted of such superb quality and some are just poop like mine [my pics, not my poop]?

I know a poor pic can't turn into a good one when posted.

Is it more the camera, camera settings, the computer program, storage device quality [SD etc.] or connection?

Some are of such clarity and good colour saturation that you can see the hairs on the animal's bloody flopping tongue.http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif

I have pics that look good when printed, but show poor quality when posted.

Hints and help from knowledgable ones would be appreciated.

Several things can effect the quality of posted pictures, as stated already many sites compress an image which is most often the culprit in the degraded image.

Editing/re-sizing a good quality image to meet the specs of the server you are uploading to will greatly reduce the degradation of the server resizing your image.

An image that has not been modified by the server should look exactly the same on your monitor as the file you uploaded.

Having said that several other things come into play.

The subject and composition must be something "captivating", a boring image no matter what quality does not make you say WOW.

Most digital cameras have a quality setting, the highest quality setting will give you the best quality (obviously).

Aperture size and shutter speed play a big part in DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) pictures. Briefly speaking, the amount of available light will dictate what shutter speed and/or aperature size you use and each affects the other.

Aperture size affects the depth of field (how clear things in the foreground/background are) a large aperture (small number) has a narrow DOF (subject clear with a blury background) and a small aperture (larger number) will give you a wider DOF (subject and background clear) but will require a longer shutter speed. A long shutter speed requires a tripod or a very steady hand/support or the image will show "blur".

Megapxels will also effect the quality of images. generally speaking the greater the megapixels the better the image. Megapixels represents how many "little dots" make up the image - the more "pixels" the greater quality. Now before any of you professional photographers start flaming, I said generally speaking, I'm not going to get into sensor size and crop factors, if anyone is interested in getting that technical - Google is your friend.

Quality of the lens also has an effect on quality. generally speaking (again) you get what you pay for. A $1500 "L" series Canon lens will give you much better quality than a $250 EF-S lens.

ISO settings will also affect image quality. To high of an ISO in daylight will give an "overexposed" effect (colors will look flat, light areas will be "washed out"), to low ISO will make your image look "underexposed" (very dark). In daylight 100 - 200 ISO is generally good, in low light - night 400 - 800 or higher ISO is preferred. The higher the ISO the more "noise" (unwanted "dots") can appear in your image.

So it is more the camera and camera settings. The computer program, storage device quality [SD etc.] or connection have nothing to do with the quality.


I know I'm missing a few things, and I'm speaking "generally" here and realize there are exceptions to some of my brief/general examples (a broken clock is right twice a day), but this is not a technical photography form. ;-)

[Ambush]

[quote=wetcoastwillie;377112]Several things can effect the quality of posted pictures, as stated already many sites compress an image which is most often the culprit in the degraded image.

Editing/re-sizing a good quality image to meet the specs of the server you are uploading to will greatly reduce the degradation of the server resizing your image.

An image that has not been modified by the server should look exactly the same on your monitor as the file you uploaded.

Thanks for the responses. Both WCW and Mr. Dean brought up the compression issue. I load my pics directly from an SD card to the hard drive on a newer computer using Windows Vista. Short answer is I just have to learn more about my programs?

My old Canon digatal quit in September so I bought a $200 Canon to carry in my pack. I often hunt alone so that means I put the camera on a mini tripod and use self-timer, then quickly run in to the scene. Part of the problem also?

[bridger]

good advice thanks




While guideing for an outfitter who is also a writer and a bit of a ' outdoor personality' I learned some good tips.........
Before 'digital' came out , we would shoot a whole roll of film...usually you get lucky with one or two and nail that ' perfect pic'.....now its easier with the digies.....
1 . try NOT to have any part of the antler/horns between you and the lens.
2. although some tilll do it , try NOT to place your gun in the horns.....kills the majestic 'look' of your animal.....and as well hard to get a real look at what the trophy looks like.
3. if your mountain hunting , go the extra mile and place your trophy with an awesome back drop!!...sometimes you have to grunt a bit , but it pays large in the end.
4. carry a cloth to wipe off blood from the mouth/nose ect....as well , you can carry a bit of fishing line with you ti tie the muzzle closed for a 'head up' shot.
5. SMILE !......how many dudes you see with some kind of ' angry ' look in their photos...kills me.....lolol....and maybe drop the smoke out of your mouth!..lolol..
most of all I have found that taking LOTS of pictures from all angles and many settings on your camera pays.