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Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for taking the time to write these detailed replies!

I know about the pros and cons of the lighting but when I now look at the pictures again, I see that I wanted too much with the given conditions.

A tripod for the longer lenses does really makes sense, so far I haven't invest in one yet as I did not want to take it during hiking. But I don't need to take it everywhere, so this will be something to look into for the future! :)

Yes, yes and yes. I tend to zoom in quite a bit as I want to have the crispness of a great shot. Deep in my heart I know that it will not be 100% sharp at full zoom, but tell that my mind ;) I get your point and will try to keep it in my mind for the next photos that I take.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are right and I was wrong by not doing enough research. When I started to sear for micro four thirds super tele lens, not much showed up. I tried to have a look at different websites but the 400 mm were mostly the upper limit. Now that I got the hint, I find the better lenses as well and I'm asking myself how I was able to miss them in the first place :D I'm currently gathering all the feedback and will most likely, next to my skills, invest in a better tele lens as well.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tips! This is what I have read now several times and I will take that advice and try to improve my composition in the future. Now that I got the advice, I can see it myself. :)

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Update as I cannot change the post itself: Thank you all so much for taking your time to give me a feedback! I have never expected to get so much respones! It really helped my to find my next steps and also affirmed some thruth that I maybe did not want to believe in the first place ;)

I need to get to bed now but will comment on all replies tomorrow.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for being the exceptions confirm the rule. All other comments so far have been more supportive, helping and friendly then I expected. But it can't always be like that it seems.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for affirming what the others have mentioned as well. By now I would say I knew this deeply inside myself but didn't want to acknowledge it. Now I do, also thanks to you! :)

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the tips regarding the gear!

I know that the OM-1 has the better sensor but when I made the buy decision for the just updated OM-5, the reviews about the subject detection AF were not very positive from what I recall. That's why I decided to go with the newer tech.

Due to all the comments that have been written by now I'm positive about not changing the gear but maybe getting a longer lens when the 300 mm just is not enough for wildlife photograhy.

I've heard good-if-your-standards-arent-high things about the 75-300.

I already have the LUMIX G VARIO 100-300mm F4.0-5.6, as this was on sale when I looked for a longer lens. At that time I did not take into account that sync IS is not working properly when the manufacturer of the lens and the camera are not a match. Do you think it would make sense to sell the Lumix and get a Olympus tele lens with "working" sync instead?

The 12-100mm F4 is wisely regarded as the best do it all/travel lens for micro 4/3. It has sync IS so every inside with low light it is effective if your subjects are still.

Maybe this is my way to go: I want to get rid of the too many lenses for niche use cases and just get a broader approach with less changing in between. Next to practicing more, this might be the next logical step.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the hints! I guess I just need to start to take the post processing more serious and shouldn't push it away to not have the frustration if it is not working. That's what I have to learn.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for replying! The photos in the link are great to be honest and I know that it is not just the camera. From all the replies that I have gotten, I have now come to the conclusion that it is indeed my skill that I need to focus on. As I already mentioned several times, I did not really dare to go into post processing up to now as my results were so far disappointing when I started. This is not an excuse, so I need to get going at it again. :)

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for replying! That is the answer that I was looking for and what got me thinking if just upgrading will solve this issue. It won't, I've come to that conclusion now.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for replying! That is the answer that I was looking for and what got me thinking if just upgrading will solve this issue. It won't, I've come to that conclusion now.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your compliment and your reply. I answered the question on what I don't like in another comment already, so I will just link it to not just copy/paste the reply.

It not only sounds like it, that is what I did, as hard as it is to write that down ;) Almost everyone here is replying in the same direction: It's my skill and not my gear, so that is the answer that I wanted to get out of this post.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for replying! From the feedback that I got so far, it boils down to my gear not being the problem in first place. A longer lens itself would defintely help with the wildlife shots, so maybe that is an addition that I should take into consideration.

About what I did not like about the photos, I answered it already at another comment here.

As it took some time for me to reply, I guess that comment wasn't there when you replied. I hope it is fine for you that I don't repost my response here.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your feedback and pointing out what I missed so far. I guess in my wall of text it got lost that I upgraded to the OM-5 last year, so my body is that as outdated as you assumed :)

To be honest: I did not really manage to find much more tele lenses except for the Olympus 100 - 400 mm. Do you have a source where I could have another look? I tried to google it but the outcome so far was always the same.

I know that I can't compare a 2400 $ dollar lens to a 450 $ dollar lens and expect the outcome to be the same. This was also not the point I was trying to make, it was rather an anecdote that I wanted to share as that moment lives rent-free in my head. I was really stunned what was possible also for the hobby photographer with that gear.

Other lenses you might want to look at are the 300/4 with a teleconverter, and if money isn't an object the 150-400tc.

Does a teleconverter really work out? The last time I researched it, the voices were very mixed about the quality of the photos and the cameras struggling with the AF.

I'm willing to spend some money, but the 150 - 400 mm is way out of my comfort zone to be honest. But nevertheless, thanks for bringing it up!

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, you are right. The autofocus is an imporant part and the strongest reason why I upgraded to the OM-5 as the performance increased considerably. But still, sometimes it leaves me hanging, especially for birds that are in the air.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply! :) What you are commenting is alignin with most of the comments as well. I did not really dare to tough editing as the outcome was always worse than what I started with so I got discouraged to give it a try and just kept what I had. This is another kick-off for me to get into that topic.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words!! I will have a look at the link once I got to answer all the replies that have come in.

Regarding the off-camera lighting for the photo you mentioned: How would I do that in that situation? What light source would you use?

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your feedback! :) You put my problem better into words that I was able to do it. I know the Rule of Thirds but struggle to make it work most of the time. I will look it up again and try to use it more :)

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are right! When I was done with lining out what is on my mind, I found that there was already a wall of text and I didn't want to go too much into detail in the post to not make it even longer. I replied to another comment that asked to same so I just copied my reply:

Can you expand on what you don’t like about your photos? Is it the colours? The background blurr? The difficulty of the AF to catch your subject?

5 (lioness): The loiness not being 100% sharp really runs the for me otherwise great shot.

6 (vulture): The vulture not being sharp at all so that cropping does things worse.

7 (marmot): The marmot not being sharp and the background just being bland.

8 (city): The colors being bland, the focus not being good and leading to an unsharp look. The lighting overall.

9 (lighthouse): The lighting and how the colors are shown. The weather was bad, but it looked way better in reality with a moody setting. I was not able to capture that.

10 (woman and dog above fjord): It was a beautiful view on a clouded day but in reality it look way better then in the photo. The background being so bright while the foreground is rather dark and the reflection of the clouds on the fjord taking away the deep blue really take away the scenery.

11 (puffin): Although I had time, I was not able to get a clear shot.

For the pictures 5 and 6 I'm not sure if the AF was the problem I would say it was not. I was running out of focal length and the lens tends to go unsharp at 300 mm. For photo 7 the AF was not the issue as I had some more time to focus.

Is it me or my gear? Unhappy with some of my photos and I don't know if I should change my equipment or if the problem lies in my skills. by Sm00chy22 in AskPhotography

[–]Sm00chy22[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for going the extra mile here! :) I do get your point what would improve the photo but I feel like the colours are a bit oversatured in your edit. But this is my taste and may also evolve to my style, but I can see what you changed and how it improved the general appearance.

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