My first true WILDlife shot... What do you think?

Senor Hound · May 15, 2008

Okay, so I have taken photos of Rabbits at the park, and squirrels, but never anything I would consider truly wild... So here it is.

I know its blurry. I took the shot, but the autofocus on my camera seemed more interested in the tree behind it than the deer (this is beyond infuriating, btw). But I would still like to know what you think about composition. Of course, with shots like this you get what the animal gives you (which I thought was a lot, in this case), but I wanted to know things like whether or not the leaves in front are too distracting, and whether or not having his legs cut off throws off the photo (cause you can't really tell).

Anyway, some constructive criticism would be cool. I'm kind of thin-skinned, but I still want to get better. If you don't mind, be friendly when you tell me it sucks

DRoberts · May 15, 2008

First of all forget you have AF Go MF and you will get more deliberate results.
Deer are especially hard to get because thay are so "spooky". You got a great capture, but the focus takes away from it.

Senor Hound · May 15, 2008

DRoberts said:
First of all forget you have AF Go MF and you will get more deliberate results.
Deer are especially hard to get because thay are so "spooky". You got a great capture, but the focus takes away from it.

I know... But I'd never have gotten even this shot if I had manual focused. I have a point and shoot with this tiny metal ring that focuses so slowly it hurts. I know this photo itself isn't all that great, but I want tips for next time (and I know the focus would make a HUGE difference).

LaFoto · May 15, 2008

Well, I know the feeling you must have had when you saw this deer and noticed she was even posing for you! So I do appreciate that the moment was special for you. Which will always make the photo more special for you than it can ever be for any mere viewer.

The mere viewer, on a photography forum no less, has the hardest of time looking beyond the technical flaws this photo has. What springs to mind at once is "gone wrong!" (Keep in mind I SAID that I appreciate the moment as such must have been special to you personally!)

Taken out of all context, the photo as such is a blooper. Sorry about that. Not only is the focus wrong, but exposure is wrong, too, you cut off her legs, and it is hard to tell if with a better focus and maybe deeper DOF the blurred leaves in the front would have worked (like in showing: this deer was hidden because they are so shy and jumpy).

I think I know what you mean about manual focusing with the compact digital camera ... it's a lot harder to do than with a DSLR! But maybe you should have waited for the little square that shows you where the focus IS (provided your camera has those little squares on your screen?) to really fall onto the deer's eyes? One, two, three attempts? Was there time? Would it have worked? I don't know.

Take my words with a grain of salt: I am notorious for not getting deer photos right!

Senor Hound · May 16, 2008

LaFoto said:
Well, I know the feeling you must have had when you saw this deer and noticed she was even posing for you! So I do appreciate that the moment was special for you. Which will always make the photo more special for you than it can ever be for any mere viewer.

The mere viewer, on a photography forum no less, has the hardest of time looking beyond the technical flaws this photo has. What springs to mind at once is "gone wrong!" (Keep in mind I SAID that I appreciate the moment as such must have been special to you personally!)

Taken out of all context, the photo as such is a blooper. Sorry about that. Not only is the focus wrong, but exposure is wrong, too, you cut off her legs, and it is hard to tell if with a better focus and maybe deeper DOF the blurred leaves in the front would have worked (like in showing: this deer was hidden because they are so shy and jumpy).

I think I know what you mean about manual focusing with the compact digital camera ... it's a lot harder to do than with a DSLR! But maybe you should have waited for the little square that shows you where the focus IS (provided your camera has those little squares on your screen?) to really fall onto the deer's eyes? One, two, three attempts? Was there time? Would it have worked? I don't know.

Take my words with a grain of salt: I am notorious for not getting deer photos right!

Thank you for the tips. I know it was all messed up. I was driving along and saw her on the side of the road. I slammed on my brakes, opened my door, got out, and she was still looking at me. I took one shot, and then her friend (who was back in the woods) grunted and she TOOK OFF.

With spur of the moment shots like this, I really think another camera could do me better. Even if all of the automatic modes failed me (like they did on my camera), I'd still have had time to focus on her manually, and maybe pop off two or three shots. Not to mention I could have shot in RAW, and adjusted the lighting--my camera is JPEG only. Also, my camera literally took 3 seconds for it to turn on, which was a quarter of the time the whole scenario took me. I'm thinking about putting my camera on spot auto focus, because obviously it has issues with reading what I want it to do (albeit, it was a challenging photo for an auto focus processor with all the different depths). Not only did it focus on the tree, but it gave me an f-stop of, like 2.8! Wrong on both counts, auto focus!

Thanks for the help on my composition flaws also. I found the leaves distracting, but I had seen others where front foliage works. I wasn't quite sure WHY it wasn't working on this photo, but now I know its because its waay too out of focus, and distracting. Plus, I need to keep her legs in the photo...

I always do that, even with my dogs at home. I get so wrapped up with zooming in on their faces, that I forget about the paws.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REPLYING AND GIVING ME FEEDBACK!!!

tpe · May 17, 2008

My daughter just came up and said, did you take that dad, she loves it, i was a little hurt as i have an almost manic obsession with sharpness and it wasnt as sharp as i try for

. Having said that, deer are really hard to get close to, and to get them in that instant that they are looking at you is superb, just what you need for a catching shot. To get the focus right you need to use something like the focus hold/af/mf dmf (direct manual focus) switch or you dont stand a chance when they are in that kind of background, so try and find it if there is one on the camera and then practice a bit as it is always hard to find in the excitement of the shoot. As for composition etc, i try and count to three and on each one i ask my self a question, 1, light (enough or good enough) 2, subject, have i got all the important bits in, and 3 background, can i get it better. I do it in that order because without light i cant get anything, then i make sure i have the subject so can get a shot and then i try and make it look nice. If you want to do wildlife it may help to just count to 3 before you take the shot?

tim

Alex_B · May 17, 2008

I love the "composition"! just it is a bit sad that the focus is more on the treen ,not on our friend in front of it.

But I like the pose, and how it apparently spotted you

sheyene29 · May 17, 2008

The deer around here love posing for the camera lol! I have some nice close ups (not nearly at the quality that lots of you take on here though) where I wasn't more than 15 feet away and the buck just laid there and looked right at me.