Squirrels...

ab1385

ab1385

ab1385

Associate
Joined
25 Apr 2006
Posts
53
Aren't they cute? Anyway, for the AVForums photo competition they had a title of wildlife, and I happen to think squirrels are incredibly cute, so went out to take some photos of them. Its funny how close they will come to you if you sit still for long enough! I had to use quite a high ISO, so they are a bit grainy, but anyway, these are a few of my favourites:









 
In number 2 something is distracting me away from the face and the eating the nut...can't think what it is though :p
 
These "Aren't they cute?" little creatures are being killed wherever they are seen by park rangers etc . as they are putting the native red squirel in danger here in the UK. I've seen many in traps and most are shot .Shame really as they look so nice.
 
They're good shots with fair composition but I find most of them a little soft (can't really find the focus point in most of them), which is weird seeing as you were using a fairly fast shutter speed (which would say to me that the lens just isn't quite getting the right bit / it's at the very end of it's range with a wide aperture). It might just be me - the fur is quite confusing to look at. No. 4 is nice and sharp, though - that's my favorite of the bunch.

Grey squirrels are cool, but red's are so much nicer!
 
I like number 1! You mention about the noise, have you tried paintshop or photoshop noise removal? I use paintshop XI and its great for removing noise from pics. Had a quick play with number one to show you what it can do. Sharpened it slightly as removing the noise blurs it a bit and boosted the colour slightly. I'm sure others can do a lot better, but you get the idea how paintshop can remove noise at the click of a button :)

I reckon you need to boost the contrast and colour a bit as they looked a little washed out

squirel.jpg
 
Arsey said:
In number 2 something is distracting me away from the face and the eating the nut...can't think what it is though :p
Click to expand...

I would have quite happily carried on being oblivious to that if you hadn't mentioned it :mad:
 
byteagig said:
this is a massive improvement on the original, great technique ;)
Click to expand...

Only involves a few button clicks! Just wanted to let the guy know noise can be sorted using paintshop :) First removed the noise by clicking the noisee removal button, then boosted the contrast and removed some brightness, followed by a boost in hue and a slight sharpness increase. Then saved it. Takes a minute if that and can really help as it means you can shoot in high ISO and remove the grain later on :D
 
Thanks a lot guys, comments and help appreciated! I only have the GIMP - is there a good way of doing noise removal there? I find that you lose a lot of detail doing noise removal in RAWShooter - maybe not an issue when it is resized down. I'll give it a go. :)
 
Yup, squirrels can make nice pics. In Sefton Park, near Liverpool, the squirrels actually come running up to you looking for food, no sitting still required :D

Here's one I snapped there a few months back

squirrel_resz.jpg


It's a shame that most of the pictures in the OP look quite soft (it looks like handshake maybe?) as they are otherwise very nice pics.
 
I back on to a park so have regular meetings with the local Squirrels, so does my Frank staffy dog an all. Right brazen they are giving it large at my back gate trying to kick off some trouble with my dog. I've told them loads of times they are Yanky imposter's and should sod off back home but they just make a little noise stick there arses in the air and walk off.
As for your pics they look all fuzzy, and not in a good way either. It is fair to say though i know nothing about photography.
 
Better? I had a go at improving them, but I'm not too sure. There's something about these that I'm just almost happy about, but not quite. Opinions?







 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom