Critique Whipsnade Zoo

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Evening, these are a few from Whipsnade yesterday. 1st time to as Zoo in three years, sadly it absolutely chucked it down, not not too much opportunity to practice. I know the chimpanzee and one of the leopard shots are not pin sharp. However I am interested to know thoughts on composition/poses etc.

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This one was taken through glass
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Hi, anyone wishing to pass comment? On the photos that it and not my total ineptitude when it comes to the English language! I must have posted this late at night!!
 
The 2 Chimp pics aren't doing a lot for me compositionally, but then Whipsnade is a tough place to get decent Chimp pics at the best of times.

I like the first and last Cheetah pics, but both are a little spoiled by the long grass, though with some patience you could remove it from the first one.
 
I'll be completely honest - the chimp ones are not keepers for me. The blurred foreground foliage is far too intrusive. I think compositionally, my pick would be the last cheetah shot. As Ruth said, the long grass is getting in the way, but the cat is positioned well in the frame.
 
I agree with the above, the chimp shots aren't great, plus they look a bit purple to me. Cheetah shots are good though, I especially like the first ( I would have been tempted to clone the grass out of its eye though)
 
Hi all, thanks for taking the time to reply. I would agree. I like the chimp ones, but only because it's the 1st time photographing them. It wasn't the easiest day, with the weather and a very wet 41/2 year old. I'll have a crack at cloning out the blade of grass. Also what do you think caused the purple tone, I did play around with the temperature slider to warm them up?
 
viv1969 said:
The 2 Chimp pics aren't doing a lot for me compositionally, but then Whipsnade is a tough place to get decent Chimp pics at the best of times.

I like the first and last Cheetah pics, but both are a little spoiled by the long grass, though with some patience you could remove it from the first one.
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I think Ruthy has been there many times and is giving honest advice here...
I like no4, tho a tad tight in the frame
Onwards and upwards as they say
 
Evening, I fully agree with Ruth's feedback. Will be hoping to get back, now I've realised it's not that far from Northampton. Think next time, I need to try and move around more and watch my settings as the shutter speed was too low.

oldandintheway said:
Onwards and upwards as they say
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I couldn't agree more, do find its one advantage of sticking my images on here! You tend to get honest feedback, as opposed to my wife's "that's nice dear"!
 
oldandintheway said:
I think Ruthy has been there many times and is giving honest advice here...
I like no4, tho a tad tight in the frame
Onwards and upwards as they say
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No problem.
But please stop calling me Ruthy.
 
BMG said:
Hi all, thanks for taking the time to reply. I would agree. I like the chimp ones, but only because it's the 1st time photographing them. It wasn't the easiest day, with the weather and a very wet 41/2 year old. I'll have a crack at cloning out the blade of grass. Also what do you think caused the purple tone, I did play around with the temperature slider to warm them up?
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I don't think warming the image up would cause the purple. Sometimes it can just be the auto WB that gets its wrong, especially shooting in the shadows. Also if you raise the exposure or shadows a lot in post processing it can do this to darker colours.
 
snerkler said:
I don't think warming the image up would cause the purple. Sometimes it can just be the auto WB that gets its wrong, especially shooting in the shadows. Also if you raise the exposure or shadows a lot in post processing it can do this to darker colours.
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Ah, that could explain it. I got caught out with the changing conditions. I have to lift the exposure quite a bit to get this. I'm working on using manual mode to get the exposure, etc right in camera, however I'm not practiced enough for it to be intuitive!
 
BMG said:
Hi all, thanks for taking the time to reply. I would agree. I like the chimp ones, but only because it's the 1st time photographing them. It wasn't the easiest day, with the weather and a very wet 41/2 year old. I'll have a crack at cloning out the blade of grass. Also what do you think caused the purple tone, I did play around with the temperature slider to warm them up?
Click to expand...

l am going to disagree and say l love thenatural look of the cheetahs with the grass, you did well to focus through it in the first one.
On my last visit l got some lovely natural looking shots with far more grass then that.

Chimps l'm not keen on but again you got through the reeds so well done on that
 
BMG said:
Ah, that could explain it. I got caught out with the changing conditions. I have to lift the exposure quite a bit to get this. I'm working on using manual mode to get the exposure, etc right in camera, however I'm not practiced enough for it to be intuitive!
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Could well be that then, but also keep an eye on WB settings. Auto WB is great 90-99% of the time depending on which camera you have, but can still give some undesired results sometimes. Getting rid of that purple is quite an easy fix in PP, which software do you use?
 
Gremlin said:
l am going to disagree and say l love thenatural look of the cheetahs with the grass, you did well to focus through it in the first one.
On my last visit l got some lovely natural looking shots with far more grass then that.

Chimps l'm not keen on but again you got through the reeds so well done on that
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Thank you for looking, it was quite a challenge, trying to use manual focus. Which come to think of it might also explain the softness!
 
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snerkler said:
Could well be that then, but also keep an eye on WB settings. Auto WB is great 90-99% of the time depending on which camera you have, but can still give some undesiredGetting rid of that purple is quite an easy fix in PP, which software do you use?
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snerkler said:
Could well be that then, but also keep an eye on WB settings. Auto WB is great 90-99% of the time depending on which camera you have, but can still give some undesired results sometimes. Getting rid of that purple is quite an easy fix in PP, which software do you use?
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Ok, also worth noting, although shooting in raw, can this be changed? I'm using photoshop cs5. Thanks for the advice
 
BMG said:
Ok, also worth noting, although shooting in raw, can this be changed? I'm using photoshop cs5. Thanks for the advice
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Yes your WB will show what you chose in camera, even when shooting RAW. That being said you can change WB in PP so not as important. Some say that getting WB in camera is still necessary as it still effects the final image in terms of dynamic range and luminance levels IIRC, but I've never tested this to know if that's true or not.
 
I like the last two cheetah photos. Don't really like the others I'm afraid due to being out of focus and distracting long grass
 
Gremlin said:
l am going to disagree and say l love thenatural look of the cheetahs with the grass, you did well to focus through it in the first one.
On my last visit l got some lovely natural looking shots with far more grass then that.

Chimps l'm not keen on but again you got through the reeds so well done on that
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Sorry not not replying, didn't catch you comments. Thank you. For future reference, what is it about the chimps you don't like? Grass can prove challenging to shoot through.

mike_6480 said:
I like the last two cheetah photos. Don't really like the others I'm afraid due to being out of focus and distracting long grass
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Thanks for looking Mike and for explaining your reasons why.
 
BMG said:
Sorry not not replying, didn't catch you comments. Thank you. For future reference, what is it about the chimps you don't like? Grass can prove challenging to shoot through.
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Can't argue with you on that, I've got a few similar ones, I particularly don't like the grass across the eye in the 2nd, and the colour balance is wrong as has been said, definite magenta cast.
I normally keep my WB on cloudy, I'm assuming as you changed it you previously had a blue cast ?
As I said you did well to focus through the reeds, it can get quite windy up there which doesn't helpeither
 
•
A lot of ordinary pictures would gain in visual quality if only shooters were not too
chicken and tone down their takes! I could illustrate my point here but we are not
allowed to edit the pictures.
 
Most issues have already been covered so I'll only make one comment. You mentioned you had your 4.5 year old with you. I find that for my photography to be at its best I need to shoot alone, and that goes for shooting with other photographers too. My daughters now grown up with a family of her own, but when she used to be with us and I'm out with my wife they will never understand the need to wait for the right moment etc, there can be long waits, and you have to consider your family when they are with you. The rain couldn't have helped too. If you return and are trying to achieve the best possible images, return alone.
 
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Kodiak Qc said:
•
A lot of ordinary pictures would gain in visual quality if only shooters were not too
chicken and tone down their takes! I could illustrate my point here but we are not
allowed to edit the pictures.
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I have no idea what you are trying to say tbh?
 
Kodiak Qc said:
I could illustrate my point here but we are not allowed to edit your pictures!
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Yes I got that much (not that they are my pictures) - care to expand on the 'tone down their takes' bit in words. What do you mean by that?
 
Sorry Daysleeper40, me mistaking they were your pictures!
Broric said:
It's not clear…
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I think these are very cool pictures but, IMO, the rendition is rather weak. I would
like to illustrate my points but edit is not allowed.
 
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