Lenses

[Carpy2001]

Hi all, hope all are well?.
I have just been taking some photo's of garden birds and our dog, they are reasonable images but just seem lacking in POP ?. By that I mean possibly not quite as clear and as crisp as I see many other images are.
I am using Olympus EM1 original and EM10 mk2, with kit lenses 14-42, and 40-150. f4-5.6
My question is how much difference would it make if the images were taken with a prime (like the 45mm f1.8). Would the difference be really noticeable??.
Dumb question I know, and has probably been asked a thousand times before, but thats me folks dumb ass lol.

Cheers Andy

 

[RyanB]

What sort of settings are you using i.e. focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc... If you are shooting RAW might just be they need a bit of basic editing to make the images 'pop' more.
Examples might help as well.

 

[Carpy2001]

This is sooc jpeg I just shot (due to not keeping anything lol)
Taken on M4/3, Olympus EM1 mk1 (16mp), using the Panasonic 45-150mm f4-5.6 kit lens, shot at 150mm, f5.6, 1/1600 sec and auto iso (this image iso 1600).



It just seems a bit flat, even after playing around with editing they never quite seem to be that good lol. I know a lot of this is going to be down to me, wrong focus point or wrong shutter speed etc, etc.
I know that I am not a good photographer, but I really enjoy it. I just struggle to learn things lol. propper thick old git.
I just wonder how much of a difference, when say takining photos of our dog a prime lens would make compared to the kit lens.

I know this was taken on a vintage pentax 50mm, but seems a bit dull/lifeless, or maybe just me lol.


Cheers Andy

 

[ancient_mariner]

In general, smaller sensors, possibly because of lens design, tend to produce flat one-dimensonal images compared to larger sensor images. In this case (looking on my phone) you have a dark bird on a dark background with plenty of depth of field. A wide-aperture prime might help a little, but only a little (small sensor again).

Your best bet will likely be to photograph birds against a background that's substantially different, then carefully process the birds with a bit of clarity and structure/texture but leave the background alone. If you can separate the bird further from the background that will also help greatly.

 

[RyanB]

It just seems a bit flat, even after playing around with editing they never quite seem to be that good lol. I know a lot of this is going to be down to me, wrong focus point or wrong shutter speed etc, etc.

Looks sharp enough, the flatness is down to the light and shooting in the shade. A stronger/ more directional light source will create more contrast between the shadow and light on the subject and give it more pop.
If you are looking for a blurrier oof background and more separation from the subject getting a bit lower so there is more distance between the bird and background ( a lighter less cluttered background would be more ideal) and getting closer to your lenses MFD will help a bit. It is a small sensor with a relatively small aperture lens though so you will never get the smooth oof bokeh and separation of a fast aperture long lens on a larger sensor body.

Editing as per ancient_mariner's suggestion is good as well.

 

[woof woof]

You're going to struggle to get shallow dof from MFT as kit lens apertures of f4-5.6 are f8-11.2 in full frame speak. You'll stand a better chance with a f2.8 zoom or F1.8 prime.

 

[Box Brownie]

It is a that bit underexposed (histogram very much 'exposed to the left'

However, (though starting with the original file would be best) I ran some Post Processing on it and got this



I used DxO Photolab to boost the contrast and then put it through my old version of Photoshop and added a tad of Smart Sharpening. I am no great skill at post processing and use the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle.

HTH if only a little