Chester zoo - the day matt nearly got wet

[sue]

Well got round to taking some of my pictures into photoshop this evening and theses are what I have come up with. The clown fish one was picked more for the colours as it is my first effort at this effect. Please let me know what you all think, its the only way I am going to improve.

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester1.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester2.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester3.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester4.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester5.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester6.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester7.jpg

http://www.suecharlton.co.uk/images/chester8.jpg

[hypnotic]

Is it just me and my crappy monitor .... Or is the elephant wearing blue eye shadow?

Have you sharpened these?

Love the shot of the parrot .... Very coy

[h.r.ford]

The orang is really great with the baby's eye just peeping through that is a fabulous picture ther. The elephant has the makings of a great shot but the focus is on the eye which is in shadow a bit too much see if maybe you can bring that out in PP. It might just be me but the lion seems OOF. Great job shooting through the glass on the fish. I like the seahorses as the highlights on the one Nemo is blown. All in all a good set keep em coming Sue.

[sue]

Yeah the elephant looks like it is wearing blue eyeshadow, I hadnt noticed that. I have shapened some of them and played a bit in photoshop, still need to improve those skills but I am better than when I started.
Will keep taking pictures and posting them up here, thanks for the comments and please keep them coming, only way I will learn.

[IanC_UK]

I think you are suffering with camera shake a bit there Sue !

You need to make sure you are shooting with a shutter speed at least equal to the length of lens you are using, the elephant shot settings look like this

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
Image Date: 2006:11:09 11:22:40
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 300.0mm
CCD Width: 5.14mm
Exposure Time: 0.010 s (1/100)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 200
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

At 300mm you shouldnt ever go under 1/300th to eliminate hand shake, unless you have a solid object to rest on.

Same goes for the Iguana shot

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
Image Date: 2006:11:09 11:33:15
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 135.0mm
CCD Width: 5.14mm
Exposure Time: 0.020 s (1/50)
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv: 800
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)


It may be you have to change to TV from AV mode, AV and locking to the smallest number (ie biggest aperture) is only good for narrow depth of field for removing fences etc. So for glass etc, swap to TV and make sure you keep the shutter speed up ! :)

Hope that helps

[digitalfailure]

I'm liking the Nemo shot :)

[moomike]

I'm liking the Nemo shot :)

I second that one, really nice shot & very well done & I also really like the Orang shot.
Selective sharpening is a very useful technique to learn & I have had quite a few shots saved by this (more than quite a few actually :p ) it can allow you to subtly shift focus to other areas of an image. If you can't find a tutorial on how to do this (I think CT may have written one) let me know & I'll put one together for you.
Hope you don't mind but I have sharpened your parrot image in this way as the focus was a little bit more on the chest feathers - I then slightly darkened the pupil & lightened the catchlight to draw attention to the eye area (just dodge & burn at low flow levels if its a quick job) - this is just a very quick example but it may help with images that are really close to being spot on but have very slightly out of focus areas. This will often not stand up to really close scrutiny when used to "rescue" an image but it is a really great technique to use in everyday post processing anyway.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/data/500/chester5.jpg

Just let me know if you need the tutorial :thumbs: