C&C Tiger & Lions Dublin Zoo

Muineach

So, I'm finally getting through some of my backlog, this time its tigers/lions/cheetah's (all taken at Dublin Zoo).

I'd really like to see what people think of number 1, I've spent too long at it trying to "fix" it, but I can't put my finger on what's wrong with it, if you know what I mean, something about it bugs me I just not sure if it's just me at this stage.

Any other suggestions for the rest of the pic's would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Muineach

1)


2) You think it's boring watching me ? you try sitting here all day!


3) Boredom


4) No fig leaves available


5) Battle Scarred


6) Hunting me, hunting you

5uspect

Very nice, I'm not sure about your quibbles with no.1 tho.
Its looks a bit soft but that just the fur I'd imagine.
Have you cropped it at all?

I quite like 2, great expression and colours.

3 looks just like 1 without a crop. The background is a little boring but other than that I can't complain.

4, thats just cute...

I'd try a high contrast B&W for 5 IMHO.

6. meh
I get the idea but would have worked better if she was staring you down, or is that too cliched?

georgey

No 3 for me
no 2 a close second, great shots

OSiriS

Some very nice shots, particularly the first 3. I think the depth of field may have been a bit shallow on the first one, which is making the focus look a bit soft, but I love the expression and the composition.

Muineach

All of the shots are uncropped except number 4, and that was just a little trim around the edges. I have the tigers in different poses etc. but I didn't want to spam the boards with photos that were more or less the same.

Shot 1 & 3 are more or less the same, I just wanted to see what people thought of shot 1, all of the tigers and cheetah photo's were taken behind a nasty perspex wall, so I had to use manual focus for those photo's, so it could be down to my manual focusing as well as the shallow DOF, most were in the range of 250-300mm.

When I got to the lions, the male was sitting in a shed covered in straw munching down on a what looked like a steak, and the glass there really bad, could barely see through it. For the lioness 5 & 6, they were taken through the "metal" green cage, which i was surprised at how little of it came out, she walked the length of the cage and then sat down in front of the shed and covered herself in straw.

Vantage points in general are pretty poor for some animals (gorilla's I took only 1 photo it was that bad), and yea, the background ain't the best, thank god the lens DOF took care of most of that. 5uspect, the cage for the lions ran along the outside of the zoo, so then would walk up and down, with no place to view them "full on", I wasn't going for anything in particular, just I thought of the title when processing it, nothings planned with me

This is the other one of the lioness, I think it's too "soft" for my liking, and yea the tip of her nose is missing, even in RAW its black on black, my fault for not setting EV properly. I could manually paint it :rolleyes:

oh yea thank's for all the feedback, much appreciated

7)

Kali

Absolutely love 2.. it's perfect, great colours and expression.

5uspect

Its always great to see your shots Muineach, thanks for posting!

Muineach

For pic 1, it was taken at 300mm and f5.6 and 1/200, and using the online calculator, it should have given me 8.5 cm of "acceptable" focus, so I think I focused right on the middle of his "snout", damn u f values !!

I have a tendency not to keep an eye on them, ah well, I'll learn, eventually, f9 would have been perfect (6in of focus) but would have forced going to ISO 400. I did see one guy with a P&S camera using the flash behind the perspex window tho, that was funny :rolleyes:

5uspect wrote:

I'd try a high contrast B&W for 5 IMHO.

This what you mean ? I think your right, works better in B&W.

AnCatDubh

Sorry - coming to this a little late but my two'pence if it's of use at this stage. 1,2, & 3 for me. Its a great capture to be honest, but the only thing 'odd' about 1 is that it looks a little like it has been green screen'd. I didn't think i'd hear myself say this but maybe a little too much depth of field - well it is and it isn't. I love that depth of field but it probably makes the tiger look like he's stuck on with pritt stick (to some extent).

Not overly gone on 5 but would prefer the colour version.

Just a few thoughts. Nice set though. Cheers.

5uspect

Muineach wrote:

This what you mean ? I think your right, works better in B&W.

yep that's what I mean! It really brings out the dark lines below the eyes. I'd even go so far as to make the fur even whiter. for example (hope you don't mind)

Maybe its just me?

Muineach

5uspect wrote:

yep that's what I mean! It really brings out the dark lines below the eyes. I'd even go so far as to make the fur even whiter. for example (hope you don't mind)

Maybe its just me?

no problem at all, I haven't really used B&W tbh, it doesn't really appeal to me, must be just a personal preference.

So I went at number 1 again, I tried changing the sharpening etc, with no joy, then I started messing around with the "mode" of the layers, then I hit upon this one, I was using High Pass sharpening at 7px radius, and I changed the layer to "Darken", with a mask covering everything but the eyes.

Now that I look at the original, the eye's seem pasted on, flat, the darken seems to give it a more realistic effect. The whiter than white of the original seems to overpower the eye's, just darken it down a bit and I think it gives it a bit more depth, plus I think your eyes have somewhere to "go to".

Comparison below, it's subtle, but you can view a bigger version at http://www.muineach.com/site/boards_c_c/panthera/IMG_3566_darken.jpg

So any better ?

Fionn

very nice photographs - well done
i'm not a huge B&W fan either but sometimes it works!!

great job.