luenny's zoo excursion!!

[luenny]

As promise, these are some of my lousy shots from the zoo. And these are the better ones too. I have not much problems with the Rhinos. But the orangutans have the problem of the sky being too bright or the subject being too dark.

Orangutans





Rhinos



Finally found a way to link it back to flickr like what they wanted.

[ranmasatome]

errr.. cant see anything leh..

[Simon]

one of the reasons to darker subject for the first 2 photo, is due to the metering, notice especially when there are hotspots.

IMO, you can increase the brightness of the photo manually, not using the Auto options or you can first reduce the highlights in the photo then adjust the brightness/contrast. I prefer the latter. But there is other method, first reduce the highlights, increase the shadow then do final adjustment, if not done correctly the photo will look unnatural.

[ranmasatome]

Light metering....and did you shoot with hood?

[luenny]

Simon,
You lost me there. How do I reduce highlight? Photoshop?

Ranma,
Didn't use hood. Is there a glare problem?

[ranmasatome]

Nope no glare... but if it was soooo sunny...it might have helped a little.
And yeah.. i think simon is talking about PS.. but also a bit about manual adjustment.

[luenny]

Besides that any other comments? How's the compo?

[Simon]

Luenny

1st pix - I prefer alittle more space
2nd pix - too much space on the left that doesn't contribute to the pix, should be crop with the subject on the left, leaving space toward the area it is supposed to swing to
3rd pix - nicer than the first 2, do you have other shots with more of the other rhino?

[Goondoo]

Did you use fill flash for these pictures? SB800?

[luenny]

Luenny

1st pix - I prefer alittle more space
2nd pix - too much space on the left that doesn't contribute to the pix, should be crop with the subject on the left, leaving space toward the area it is supposed to swing to
3rd pix - nicer than the first 2, do you have other shots with more of the other rhino?

Hi Simon,
Yes, I have some other Rhino shots but not so nice or more or less the same. They are much bigger and slower so much easier to take. Plus they don't climb up trees so they don't have the sky behind to light them up. Anyway, I didn't shoot much rhino because my daugthers wants to go see polar bear feeding.

Care to elaborate on your comment on the 1st pix? A little more space towards which side?

Pix 2, noted. I was hoping the tree branch would form leading lines to the subject. Furthermore they were at an angle. But I guess it didn't work out huh?

Did you use fill flash for these pictures? SB800?

Hi Billy,
No, no fill flash. They are way too far, I doubt the flash will reach. Anyway, I don't want to flash them and cause them to fall on to the floor also. I guess that's why the subjects are a bit on the darker side. Well, still learning.

[Goondoo]

Hi Billy,
No, no fill flash. They are way too far, I doubt the flash will reach. Anyway, I don't want to flash them and cause them to fall on to the floor also. I guess that's why the subjects are a bit on the darker side. Well, still learning.

Too far? Ask Melvin about it.... He shoot birds (I know it sounds wierd) with fill flash... how can your monkeys be further away than the birds? I believe it does explain why your picture are unable to meter correctly.

[Simon]

not advisable to use a flash extender in this case, most likely you have to compensate and shoot above the camera's setting. perhaps, next time, you should preview the shots with the histogram to check the exposure

[StanChung]

Luenny, I really like the contrast and colour in your shots!


Shot one is pretty cool, I would try to use a suitable longer lens and move back to get softer bigger bokeh highlights. The large white ones are pretty distracting. The position of the bg is pretty important and good to try to move a bit to get the a few.

The second shot is a miss because the lighting did not give focus to the orangutan despite the nicely composed shot. It's perhaps too wide for my taste.

The third shot is very nicely focussed and lighting is good as it shows the texture of the rhino. I would take down the DOF so that the bg is more outfo[out of focus].
Would have been stunning if the bg is darker/almost black.

Anyway my comments are just what could have been and is not necessarily possible to achieve at that point in time.

[trident]

Luenny,
I liked the 1st picture, pity it's a bit too dark, no thanks to the bright background.
Anyway what metering did you use? I was reading about spot metering and was thinking, could spot metering help in this situation?
Or you could play tarzan and swing closer to the subject and get a better shot.

[luenny]

not advisable to use a flash extender in this case, most likely you have to compensate and shoot above the camera's setting. perhaps, next time, you should preview the shots with the histogram to check the exposure

Using flash extender and compensating is not a problem (if I can get a flash extender in the first place). Anybody knows where to get one? The bigger problem is, how will the flash affect the orangutans? I don't want orangutans jumping all over attacking me because of the flash. Seriously, I've read stories that pro photographers say they try taking chimp with flash and the chimp look at them like (next time you flash, your head or something is gonna come off).

Luenny, I really like the contrast and colour in your shots!

Shot one is pretty cool, I would try to use a suitable longer lens and move back to get softer bigger bokeh highlights. The large white ones are pretty distracting. The position of the bg is pretty important and good to try to move a bit to get the a few.

The second shot is a miss because the lighting did not give focus to the orangutan despite the nicely composed shot. It's perhaps too wide for my taste.

The third shot is very nicely focussed and lighting is good as it shows the texture of the rhino. I would take down the DOF so that the bg is more outfo[out of focus].
Would have been stunning if the bg is darker/almost black.

Anyway my comments are just what could have been and is not necessarily possible to achieve at that point in time.

I agree, shot 1 bg is too bright. Darn these enclosure, you can only view from 1 or 2 sides.

Second shot, yeah, not very good eh? I was hoping to show some of the action going around - since I don't see much of that in zoo shots.

3rd one, yeah the DOF thing. I'm using the newly bought 55-200mm f4/5.6 lens. At 200 mm, the biggest ap I can go is 5.6. Darn!

Luenny,
I liked the 1st picture, pity it's a bit too dark, no thanks to the bright background.
Anyway what metering did you use? I was reading about spot metering and was thinking, could spot metering help in this situation?
Or you could play tarzan and swing closer to the subject and get a better shot.

Yeah, I've got brighter ones too - using over exposure compensation. But they don't look too nice so didn't post here. The brighter ones, the orangutan is nicely lighted but the background is even more bright. Darn!

I doubt spot metering could help in this case. I did try spot metering (although I can't remember which metering I use for this shot, you can check the exif info). The problem is the background light is shining from behind the orangutan to the camera. So you either get the background right or the orangutan right. Or you use flash to fill in for the orangutan. I guess I should have tried the flash for this one since he's just seating there and not swinging about. At least if he gets up I know he doesn't like it. Darn! Opportunity missed again.

Well try and try again.

[Shadow]

I don't want orangutans jumping all over attacking me because of the flash. Seriously, I've read stories that pro photographers say they try taking chimp with flash and the chimp look at them like (next time you flash, your head or something is gonna come off).

Just get ready to run, incase that happen

My guess is they probably get use to flash already. Everyday seeing people taking photo, I'm sure some of them using flash.

[trident]

Luenny,
Funny thing, my office monitor (Viewsonic LCD) shows the pictures much brighter, can see most of the detail.

[luenny]

Yes, different monitors are calibrated differently so it may not show the same thing. That's a big problem with online photos.

[wasabi8888]

well, if the sun (light) is not working your way, sometimes it's hard to take good pictures.
I like the rhino pics, it's really nice...

I also like pic 1, esp the composition. Prob need to get either the metering right or for the light to fall at the right place.

I use histograms in times like this, where the sun is too bright for me to view with the LCD.

My 2 cents worth...

[Shadow]

Hi Jeffrey, just wondering, how do you use histogram?