Exotic Pet Store

Snakeguy101 · Feb 6, 2011

A friend of mine owns a very nice exotic pet store and asked me to take some pictures of a dew of the animals so that he could post them on his website. Here are a few of the best ones. C&C always welcome

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Abby Rose · Feb 6, 2011

1. the guys head is right on the top of the frame, which bugs me personally. One of his eyes is a little raccoon-ish. Plus, I'm not sure the ferret thing is in focus.... Maybe its blurred though? Something seems wrong. Also, is the yellow glare from the aquariums and stuff? Can you try to get rid of it?

2. This one seems underexposed and I think just barely out of focus. Also, a little deeper dof could have worked better, I think.

3. Everything is very yellow. From the lights in the tanks? I think this could be brightened up as well. The blue on the top contrasts with the snake, and I think if you cropped it out the composition would be improved anyway.

4. I think that this is the best one, but maybe also underexposed (is it my monitor?). Is there anyway you could get rid of the shine from the glass on the left side on the coral thing? I think I would have preferred deeper dof here as well.

This seems like a tricky place to take pictures. It doesnt seem very bright, and I'm thinking that the different tanks and aquariums are giving off all sorts of funny-colored light.

Snakeguy101 · Feb 6, 2011

Abby Rose said:
1. the guys head is right on the top of the frame, which bugs me personally. One of his eyes is a little raccoon-ish. Plus, I'm not sure the ferret thing is in focus.... Maybe its blurred though? Something seems wrong. Also, is the yellow glare from the aquariums and stuff? Can you try to get rid of it?

2. This one seems underexposed and I think just barely out of focus. Also, a little deeper dof could have worked better, I think.

3. Everything is very yellow. From the lights in the tanks? I think this could be brightened up as well. The blue on the top contrasts with the snake, and I think if you cropped it out the composition would be improved anyway.

4. I think that this is the best one, but maybe also underexposed (is it my monitor?). Is there anyway you could get rid of the shine from the glass on the left side on the coral thing? I think I would have preferred deeper dof here as well.

This seems like a tricky place to take pictures. It doesnt seem very bright, and I'm thinking that the different tanks and aquariums are giving off all sorts of funny-colored light.

1)I agree with his head touching the frame but unfortunately I can't crop less, that is the top of the picture. I tried cropping more to see if that helped but I did not like the results. As for his "coon- eyes" they are naturally like that. The Kinkajou (ferret thing) was difficult to get to sit still so it is probably a motion blur although it is naturally fuzzy and I think some of his fuzz is contributing to the OOF sense you are getting. As for the yellow glare, are you talking about the ones in the background or the reflection on his face?

2)I agree and will keep that in mind next time.

3) I thought the blue color added to the interest of the photo since it was so yellow. I did think of cropping it out but decided to leave it for the contrast. Is it that distracting?

4) I disagree about the exposure, I ended up trashing a few others that were a bit brighter because they blew out the whites and I lost a lot of details in it. I can try to remove the glare from the glass though, maybe use the burn tool? Is there a better way to do that in PS?

Thank you for your honest critiques, I really appreciate them.

BlackSheep · Feb 6, 2011

Very nice shots! I really like the first one, it is clear how much the animals mean to him from the expression on his face.

I hope that you don't mind, I took the liberty of cropping the first three down, to me the closer cropping gives a better focus to each shot:

The last photo is really, really neat - if you could do something to get rid of those light spots in the front left side, it would be even better!

ETA - just edited this post to replace the photos, didn't realize they would be gone when I deleted them from photobucket (still learning).

Snakeguy101 · Feb 7, 2011

Thank you, you were right, these crops are better. I especially like the last crop.
As for the last image I was able to burn the reflections in PS so that are not as noticeable or distracting anymore.