Some heifer pictures from today

[movin' on]

Ok, everyone,

Here's three pictures of the neighbors heifers. What am I doing wrong? I took a couple of dozen pictures today and they all turned out really harsh looking. Is there a setting on these digital cameras that allows you to take better pictures in bright sunlight? I tried to keep the sun behind me. Some of you experts speak up and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I'll go over to his place again in the next day or two and get some better ones and we'll try to have the bulls posted on here shortly after that. Let me know what you think of these three heifers of his. They're about 22 months old and bred for February calves.

 

[Soapweed]

The heifers look very nice. They are straight, wide, deep, but still feminine, and they "have a leg on all four corners." :wink: Of course, they sure aren't lacking any "condition" either, and are fat, sassy, and bloomy. I like 'em.

 

[kolanuraven]

Looks like you've got too much ' exposure', light coming into your picture and washing out the color contrast.


When all else fails....read the instructions!!!!! :lol: :lol: :wink: :wink:

 

[Juan]

Just the wrong color and markings.

 

[nortexsook]

What the hay?

All these pictures and still no bull pictures?

What do you think about these steers, what do you think about these heifers?

To hay with all that, post the bull pictures already.

Seems like some sophomoric effort to build anticipation.

 

[movin' on]

Nortexsook,

I believe that anybody interested in buying bulls would be interested in seeing some of the bulls offspring as well as some of the bulls ancestory and siblings. It's not really hard to fatten up a bull and make it look pretty decent. I'm trying to paint as accurate of a picture as I can of this man's animals, as well as show some of the results I am having by using his bulls.

When I am able to go take some pictures of the bulls I will post them and probably put something about "bulls" in the topic title.

Until then, I will probably put a few more pictures of the bulls' offspring and families on here. These will probably contain the words "heifers" or "steers" or "cows" in the topic title. Please do not feel yourself obligated to view these.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Good pictures of Black cattle can be hard to take. Most bull sale picture up here are taken in the winter and it seems hard to get the light right.

I agree it is nice to see some offspring as well as the bulls. Some say they never buy a bull without looking at the cow.

I didn't think those hfrs were really very fat just naturally thick good doing cattle.

 

[Jassy]

It's hard to take good pictures with black cattle against white backgrounds on a sunny day. But I agree, that you have to much backlight...Some camera's have a backlight button that you can hit and it will adjust, others don't. Even though it maybe inconvenient, take those pictures when it's cloudy or early morning or late evening, before the sun gets to high, and yes with the sun to your back...actually I didn't think they were bad pictures at all...the cattle still look good.

 

[Faster horses]

Those are some fantastic heifers!!! And I'm definitely one that likes to see the "cow family" the bull came from.

As for the quality of the pictures, at least you could see the heifers real well. I'm sure no expert, but on your camera, do you have some icons on top that show face (for portrait), trees for 'landscape', etc? If you do, you might try switching from what you are using to something else.

Now that's about as general information as you can get...

 

[movin' on]

Faster Horses, thanks a million. I appreciate your input.

I was looking at the camera a little while ago and saw where I could choose from "close-up", "night time", "snow scene", etc. One of the options was for a "beach scene" I'm sure this is meant to indicate bright scenes with lots of light coming from above and being reflected from below. I'm going to be over at the man's place tomorrow and I'll try again!

His heifers are awesome. So are his registered/donor cows and his bulls. I'm getting fantastic results out of using his bulls on my commercial cows. They are simply the best bang for the buck of any bulls I've ever come across.

 

[movin' on]

Something else I forgot to mention.....I found out a couple of hours ago that the heifers pictured are eating moderate quality prairie hay and recieving 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of a 15% grain mix daily.

 

[S.S.A.P.]

This may help . . . or maybe not :???:

Manual (M) setting:
shutter/aperture (f) settings for 100 asa setting for black cattle

Bright Sun: 1/500 … f 8 OR (1/1000 … f 5.6)
Light Overcast: 1/500 … f 5.6 OR (1/1000 … f 4)
Medium Overcast: 1/500 … f 4 OR (1/1000 … f 2.8 )
Heavy Overcast: 1/250 … f 4 OR (1/500 … f 3.5)
flash in barn: 400 asa, 1/250 … f 8 OR (100 asa, 1/250 … f 4)
Sunset/Silhouette: 1/60 … f 3.5
...........it's helpful to copy and print the above out for in the camera bag/your pocket or on your visor :wink:


Outside shots for other asa
example: from 100 to 200 asa setting
100 asa is 1/500 ….f 8
200 asa setting could be either:
• 1/1000 … f 8 OR
o 1/500 … f 11

100 or 200 asa setting should be used for best quality printing of 5 x 7 or larger
400 … 800 asa and/or shutter speeds of 1/100 or slower (1/60) settings tend to get grainy unless tripod (or supporting camera on corral, truck window ..etc) is used

Each camera may have different results but if cattle are still "black blobs" (at 100 or 200 asa)
open aperture (f) : example f 8 to f 5.6 (one stop or next lower number)
decrease shutter speed: example 1/500 to 1/250 (one stop or next lower number)
….. surrounding area/background might appear over-exposed

asa - 400 … 800 … 1600 etc used for very low light conditions or for greater zoom (lens) distances - greater than the basic 55 mm lens that is standard on most cameras.

larger aperture openings – f 3.5 for example will make animal heads appear to large in a ¾ angle front shot BUT this could be favorable in a rear shot (making the butt look larger). At f 4 or f 3.5, avoid camera shake by resting elbow on something or holding it tight against your body.


Have fun and good luck - I do hope it helps

 

[S.S.A.P.]

hit the wrong button - I meant to add that your first pic is fine by my standards. The other two perhaps a little overexposed but I prefer that to one that is to dark - where the cattle are just black blobs, and show no muscle definition.

- I like the cattle by the way.

 

[movin' on]

Wow, S.S.A.P. That is very helpful. I will definately print that off and use it. I would like to "get into" photography more than I am, and now I have a "manual" to take with me!

Thanks for that little add-on, too. It sure encourages Darren to hear everyone's positive comments.

Jeremy

 

[Red Barn Angus]

Jeremy,

Those are some good looking cattle. I, too, am interested in seeing bull pictures and learning something of their pedigrees. I anticipate buying a new bull this spring and may want to consider one of those.

 

[katrina]

I don't see a thing wrong with your pictures.... Now days pictures can be doctored up so well that sometimes I wonder if they are really real..... For example bull pictures in books and horse pictures too..... Love em, keep um coming!!

 

[Neil Waugh]

I got a drill in my computer software called Microsoft Office Picture Manager where you can cheat your snaps back into shape even if you blow your exposure a little. I ran your hiefer through it and it came out not half bad. The buildings are still a little hot though. If you're runing Microsoft you've probably got it too. Just a matter of diggin' it out.

 

[murphy-livestock.com]

Ok, everyone,Cattle look fine, you get the point across to a buyer. Deffiately hard to take pictures of black cattle, anytime, One thing you need to remember you are putting the pictures up on the internet, they will get streamed in the precess, set your camera to N for normal, or E for economy, there is a lot of difference, when takings pictures, or video, for watching on Television, and putting them up on a website. N or E will help cure the fuzzy blurr, not so many pixels. hope this help a bit Mike Murphy Murphy Livestock, website www.murphy-livestock.com are these the cattle that are for sale.

Here's three pictures of the neighbors heifers. What am I doing wrong? I took a couple of dozen pictures today and they all turned out really harsh looking. Is there a setting on these digital cameras that allows you to take better pictures in bright sunlight? I tried to keep the sun behind me. Some of you experts speak up and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I'll go over to his place again in the next day or two and get some better ones and we'll try to have the bulls posted on here shortly after that. Let me know what you think of these three heifers of his. They're about 22 months old and bred for February calves.