Trip to the zoo

beck7777 · 4th December 2007

My previous thread was deleted and plus so many advice from eikin, I hope I doing it right this time...

Took this when I went to the zoo around noon where the sun was partly behind the clouds..

As 1st time using a DSLR(I'm using Nikon D40), I'm hoping to gain some tips and pointers on how to tale better pics..

1 of my friend commented its quite flat.. How do I go about to achive better effect?

eikin · 5th December 2007

thank you for making the necessary effort in making the post.

since no one has responded yet, i'll just share 2 technical things you need to take note of.

1. When shooting an animal in full body, the placement of the head is very important.

The tiger's head in this picture is ''going out'' of the picture, and the angle of the face
showed little interest (one cannot see a ''readable face,'' and the animal turning away
also suggest a lack of interest.) A good time to capture an animal is when it makes a
direct eye contact with you or when it focuses on something else intently.

2. When shooting an animal in full body, the shape of the animal's image and the
juxtaposition of that image against the background is also important.

In your image, the tiger appears in an awkward shape. the viewer is unable to read the
expression of the body (tense, relaxed etc.) due to the distorted look. One is unsure
what the tiger is trying to do, neither are there clues to suggest what it is going to do
next.

Filling up the frame with the subject causes visual congestion, especially against an
uninteresting background. Congestion is not always bad, but it can be bad when you
are trying to simply feature your subject as object of focus. The left front leg of the
tiger ''hits'' the edge of the frame causing a lack of balance as well, showing the
indecisiveness in your framing.

Your friend might have said your picture looks flat because of the uninteresting light.
In this picture the grey stones do not provide any contrast for your subject to make
it visually more vivid as well.

beck7777 · 5th December 2007

Thanks for the feedback!

nemesis32 · 6th December 2007

I think you did well with the D40 and under such low light conditions. Eikin has correctly pointed out some things you can take note of. One thing i have to add is that White tigers, with it's white skin tones and the shaded surroundings usually results in fairly dull pictures. Another thing you may want to do is to take note of feeding time. I always schedule my shoot according to feeding time so that you will see the animals moving around (anticipating for food) and even fighting (for food of course:P).

tsjcsl · 15th December 2007

One good thing in the picture is that there are no man-made objects to show that it is the zoo.

I think it did not help that the left leg of the tiger, the most prominent part in the picture, is quite bare (no stripes) compared to the face and body.

4th December 2007	#1
beck7777 New Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2	Trip to the zoo My previous thread was deleted and plus so many advice from eikin, I hope I doing it right this time... Took this when I went to the zoo around noon where the sun was partly behind the clouds.. As 1st time using a DSLR(I'm using Nikon D40), I'm hoping to gain some tips and pointers on how to tale better pics.. 1 of my friend commented its quite flat.. How do I go about to achive better effect?

5th December 2007	#2
eikin Moderator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: 東京 Tokyo Posts: 10,920	Re: Trip to the zoo thank you for making the necessary effort in making the post. since no one has responded yet, i'll just share 2 technical things you need to take note of. 1. When shooting an animal in full body, the placement of the head is very important. The tiger's head in this picture is ''going out'' of the picture, and the angle of the face showed little interest (one cannot see a ''readable face,'' and the animal turning away also suggest a lack of interest.) A good time to capture an animal is when it makes a direct eye contact with you or when it focuses on something else intently. 2. When shooting an animal in full body, the shape of the animal's image and the juxtaposition of that image against the background is also important. In your image, the tiger appears in an awkward shape. the viewer is unable to read the expression of the body (tense, relaxed etc.) due to the distorted look. One is unsure what the tiger is trying to do, neither are there clues to suggest what it is going to do next. Filling up the frame with the subject causes visual congestion, especially against an uninteresting background. Congestion is not always bad, but it can be bad when you are trying to simply feature your subject as object of focus. The left front leg of the tiger ''hits'' the edge of the frame causing a lack of balance as well, showing the indecisiveness in your framing. Your friend might have said your picture looks flat because of the uninteresting light. In this picture the grey stones do not provide any contrast for your subject to make it visually more vivid as well. __________________ APAD

5th December 2007	#3
beck7777 New Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2	Re: Trip to the zoo Thanks for the feedback!

6th December 2007	#4
nemesis32 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Singapore Posts: 3,476	Re: Trip to the zoo I think you did well with the D40 and under such low light conditions. Eikin has correctly pointed out some things you can take note of. One thing i have to add is that White tigers, with it's white skin tones and the shaded surroundings usually results in fairly dull pictures. Another thing you may want to do is to take note of feeding time. I always schedule my shoot according to feeding time so that you will see the animals moving around (anticipating for food) and even fighting (for food of course:P).

15th December 2007	#5
tsjcsl Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Simei Posts: 227	Re: Trip to the zoo One good thing in the picture is that there are no man-made objects to show that it is the zoo. I think it did not help that the left leg of the tiger, the most prominent part in the picture, is quite bare (no stripes) compared to the face and body.