Bukit Timah Monkey

[Monkey King]

Hi All

I snapped this girl lounging on some cars in the carpark at the Bukit Timah reserve. She was pretty use to human attention and was away from the troupe.

Setting:
f/5.6
1/100s
ISO 800

Critique wanted:
What do you think of the composition? Does it look strange without the tail?
Would cropping the hindlegs improve the shot?

 

[wildsoyabean]

1) dun chop the hands and legs! if u want to chop, chop all the way and leave just the face - as though u are shooting a human facial expression.

2) why u shoot at iso 800? though i can tell the noise here...but @ 100% crop there is certain some noise.

 

[eosandy]

Hi All

I snapped this girl lounging on some cars in the carpark at the Bukit Timah reserve. She was pretty use to human attention and was away from the troupe.

Setting:
f/5.6
1/100s
ISO 800

Critique wanted:
What do you think of the composition? Does it look strange without the tail?
Would cropping the hindlegs improve the shot?

As said, try not to crop the body of any elements, and if you do, go for a tighter shot.
In this shot, as the subject is not looking directly at you, it would be worth recomposing the shot to show us what has got her interest.

Face, especially eyes need to be sharp, maybe an increased shutter speed would help, but if low-light you need wider aperture as well.

 

[night86mare]

the picture looks clean enough to me, these days one can sometimes be overvigilant about noise. if one checks the exif, the picture was shot at 135mm, 1/100 seconds is a reasonable shutter speed to assume, not sure about what lens was used; perhaps if the aperture could be opened up more, without sacrificing too much dof.. yes, the iso could be lowered. otherwise, the chances of getting a good picture in the lighting showcased here are dismal.

it is not a matter of making sure EVERYTHING is in the picture. some of the best pictures of animals are taken with intimate closeup details; for example, just the face of a monkey, just the backlit outline of an elephant's trunk.. the problem with the composition here is that it is not here not there. you cannot seem to decide whether to go for a showcase of the entire animal, or a closeup. it is somewhere in between, and that is hard to work with.

nonetheless, i think the eyes are sharply in focus, though i would really have preferred more eye contact here. the same really applies to animals, less so definitely compared to models.. but eye contact can make the difference between a portrait of a distinctively alive animal, and a candid photograph.

 

[calebk]

...
2) why u shoot at iso 800? though i can tell the noise here...but @ 100% crop there is certain some noise.

But the common netizen and viewer viewing this image, and viewing a 4R print, if ever produced, will not see the noise. Why would you bother about a 100% crop when the image's audience is never going to see that level of detail anyway?

 

[agape01]

of course it would depend on which cam was used to shoot. The newer ones would not have so much noise.

 

[cabbySHE]

This pic could easily pass on as taken in the zoo if not for the description.
Shooting monkeys in their natural environment are tricky and sometimes dangerous ( one never know ). I shall pass this on as a good picture over those that I'd taken on the same subject, phew. all gone to rubbish bin.