Trip to the Zoo! C&C please!

JKnobelock · Apr 1, 2009

So took a trip to the stl zoo. here are some of my shots
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

let me know what ya think.

LaFoto · Apr 1, 2009

That bird (?) in Photo 4 looks ... strange. To put it mildly. What on earth IS it? Ah, but I'm beginning to understand: it's looking SIDEWAYS, right?
I think the peacock photo came out best. It looks sharpest.
But Anty will like your first photo here

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Sherman Banks · Apr 1, 2009

Not bad, I think many will recommend the cropping of your photos. You've cut the animals out of the frame at very odd spots. Always get a shot larger than you want so you can crop it down to a desirable size. This also makes it so you're not stuck with the shot where you want to add something to the frame, like the cheetah's feet. Good shots otherwise for the most part. Color looks nice on the peacock and your focus looks pretty sharp on most.

JKnobelock · Apr 1, 2009

la foto-the strange bird is looking sideways and down, sorta looks like it was staring right at me. as far as the name, for the life of me i cant recall seeing a thing telling what it was, which bugs me because its such an interesting bird.
sherman banks- now that you mention it, i have noticed most the shots from the zoo, did kinda have weird cut out spots. some un avoidable. however something i will have to work on.

Sherman Banks · Apr 1, 2009

^ It's all a preferential thing, some people like to crop their photos that way. There was a recent thread on here about shooting shots larger than you want so when you get prints, you can actually get the shot printed the way you intended. I've noticed some of my favorite shots, when cropped to an 8X10, don't look as good as they do with the native resolution. Once again, nice shots!

manaheim · Apr 1, 2009

With the exception of 2, I think you need to up your saturation and contrast and sharpen all of these a bit. I'd do one to show you an example, but I don't have photoshop here.

This also leads me to believe that you may be over-exposing your shots ever so slightly. Also, where shooting subjects in sunlight you should look into a circular polarizer. They are an absolute necessity in bright sun conditions for really rich colorful shots. (the cut down glare, increase saturation, reduce reflections)

JKnobelock · Apr 1, 2009

manaheim said:
With the exception of 2, I think you need to up your saturation and contrast and sharpen all of these a bit. I'd do one to show you an example, but I don't have photoshop here.

This also leads me to believe that you may be over-exposing your shots ever so slightly. Also, where shooting subjects in sunlight you should look into a circular polarizer. They are an absolute necessity in bright sun conditions for really rich colorful shots. (the cut down glare, increase saturation, reduce reflections)

good observation, i may go back and see what a bump in contrast may do, or lower the exposure a bit. I am definately looking into getting a circular polarizer, Just waiting to get some extra cash on me.