C&C On Zoo Pics Please

fenderjaguar · Nov 18, 2012

1 )Tiger statue that I used selective coloring for

2) Zebra eating grass

3) Giraffe

4) Foxes sleeping

5) Giraffe eating

Any C&C would be appreciated -Justin

binga63 · Nov 18, 2012

i like the foxes but would have preferred them as a landscape crop

SCraig · Nov 18, 2012

binga63 said:
i like the foxes but would have preferred them as a landscape crop

Agreed. Match your shot to the orientation. The tiger is short and wide: Landscape. The giraffe is tall and thin: Portrait. The foxes together are short and wide: Landscape. If you don't you wind up with a lot of background somewhere, such as the cave background above and below the foxes.

The last shot of the giraffe is significantly underexposed. Look at the histogram of it, it's a valuable tool that is at your disposal on the LCD of your camera. Specifically how most of the data is way over on the left side of the shot. That indicates an underexposure.

I don't know what you are shooting with, the EXIF data is missing from your shots, but if it's a DSLR use your aperture to blur the background. My guess is that you were either shooting with a point-and-shoot or bridge since the background goes forever and forever and forever. The background in most of them is very busy and distracting. Look at the giraffe in #3. The background is so busy the giraffe almost gets lost in it.

Shooting animals is a game of patience whether it's at the zoo or in the wild. To get a decent shot you sometimes have to wait for them to do something, such as come toward you or move away from a distracting background. That's where the patience comes in because they can't be hurried.

I normally take animal shots as they present themselves. I would have shot #3 just in case it was the only shot I got, but I would have waited around to see if the shot improved. The animal could always walk the other way or go into an area that's even worse. Take what you can get, but then wait and see if it gets better. It's not like the film days where each shot cost something. I live about a mile from the Nashville Zoo and have been there dozens of times. Each time I usually come home with a couple of hundred shots very much like the other 6,000+ images I already have from there. It costs nothing and sometimes I come home with a very good one to make it worthwhile.