My first C&C

5uspect

Right decided to throw caution to the wind and post up some my my favoutite shots taken with my 350D (with either the 18-55mm and 55-200mm kit lenses). They're mostly zoo shots from a recent trip to Germany.

They're not perfect so please be as critical as you like, I'm here to learn!

440Hz

Nice work! I like the lynx and the second polar bear the most! Glad you decided to post them. I think they are nicely taken, nice composition... wildlife isnt the easiest

311

The lynx shot is great ,lovely focus on it.

5uspect

thanks
the lynx shot was taken with the kit 55-200mm lens, not the sharpest lens out there but it can surprize

mdebets

I liked the Lynx too, nice in fous and a good blur of the background. I personally would have croped a little bit on the right.

The first polar bear is also nice, especially the reflection in the water. Again I personally would have use a tighter crop, to focus more on the bear. I also find the grass on top a little bit distracting, as it catches the eye due to a totally different colour to the rest of the picture.

I like the facial expression of the second polar bear, but I think that the cut-off of his right ear is a little bit unfortunately. It could also do with a little bit tighter crop on the left.

The bumblebee shot is a little bit unusual. You normally would have expected the focus on the bee rather than the flower, but I like the unusual. The flower in the middle (the one in focus) could be a little bit shaper.

5uspect

I haven't cropped any of them as yet, I'm not too sure about what works when cropping so I'm glad to hear your ideas, thanks.
The bumblebee shot should have had the bee in focus but they can be annoying models! Turned out kinda nice tho.

Valentia

1. To catch a flying bumblebee in focus must be one of the hardest shots in photography. The shot doesn't work for me because of the bee not being in focus. I wouldn't worry though, luck plays a big part and patience. I have hundreds of OOF bees. Not one in focus. Sad I know

2. I like it. Cropping out some of the straw and even an "auto levels" in any image manipulation programme will give it more contrast and make it jump out more. 'Tis a small bit flat at the moment.

3. Deadly. Great shot!!

4. & 5. The fact that the 1st bear is out of focus (it could be movement blur) spoils it for me thogh the composition is very good. The second one is really nice. Again crop out the space on the left and lift the contrast a bit.

You have an eye for a good picture. I don't know if you have Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or something, but as I've said, always adjust the levels or do an auto levels. You will be amazed the difference it makes.

If you don't mind I can do a bit with your pics tonight and show you what I mean.

5uspect

I did do a levels correction in photoshop of the Gorilla but I've just realised that I've uploaded the wrong file. It does improve when you pull in the shadow and highlight stops. I'm playing around with curves a bit more a lot more lately. I'll see if I can give it a shot tonight!

CrowdedHouse

I like the Lynx one - well done

Peteee

Another for the lynx, very sharp

CONMIKE12

The lynx and the polar bear shot are very impressive allright.Well done.

Ruu_Old

Which city in Germany were you in? These are nice pictures, the lynx and polar bear ones are good, very crisp and clear. Thanks for posting.

sionnach

Love the lynx shot, i think the others need a bit of post processing to give them a bit of oomph, also maybe improve the focus? For wildlife shots on my 350d i set it to use only the centre AF point for focusing, use it to focus on the eye of the subject then recompose and shoot. Works nicely, although i'd have a nightmare trying to lock on to that bumblebee in time (:

[edit]

quick idea of what i mean about the post processing: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~sionnach/process.jpg

Lynx shot processed in a few clicks with a PS action i have saved that mimics the effects of using velvia film
Polar bear just auto adjusted the curves and sharpened a bit

[/edit]

Fenster

The lynx shot is just beautiful, doubly so as the Canon kit lenses are muck at a high focal length.

5uspect

sionnach, I like the PS work. Thanks. I'm always afraid to correct the shadow/highlight too much but I need to get over that.

Ruu, The zoo is in Gelsenkirchen (of Budwiser World Cup ad fame). They've just redeveloped it so there are lots of open spaces with animals mixed in large habitats. Its split into mini zoo's Africa, Alaska and Asia. Asia won't be opened until 2008 but the olther two are pretty much finished. Its quite nice - even the animals seem to enjoy the space.

Fenster, yeah those lenses aren't the most forgiving. But I decided that they would be good cheap trainer lenses until I get more confident.

JMcL

+1 for the lynx pic. Also as sionnach has demonstrated, it'll have more impact with a levels adjusted to improve contrast, and saturation boosted a bit.

For the second polar bear, I think a very tight crop in portrait format is the way to go - just concentrate on the bears face

joolsveer

My vote also goes to the shot of the lynx. I play around a lot with PS as well but I always seem to go too far. I encourage you to keep on shooting and posting here and on every forum you can find. It will ensure that you get a good range of views. By that I mean that a particular photo site may have a "house style" and if your shots don't conform to the majority view they are no good.

5uspect

joolsveer wrote:

My vote also goes to the shot of the lynx. I play around a lot with PS as well but I always seem to go too far. I encourage you to keep on shooting and posting here and on every forum you can find. It will ensure that you get a good range of views. By that I mean that a particular photo site may have a "house style" and if your shots don't conform to the majority view they are no good.

Good point, thanks. I'm a little reluctant to do the whole flickr thing etc but I'll post a few more here when I've got some nice shots. I'll consider spreading myself about a bit then