The Feline Bender


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rajahchindian

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Dec 27, 2008
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Singapore, Jurong West
www.flickr.com
This is just a snapshot i took at Singapore Zoo during the White Tiger feeding time.

1. In what area is critique to be sought?

The action was very quick so i had nearly no time to compose the picture. Even so critique on composition is welcome.
I need help/work on post production.
Please comment on exposure and contrast.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?

I wanted to capture an action photo with the tiger. The element of water added the dramatic effect.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)

I was amongst the hundreds of people crowding the area. So i was very restricted in my stance and movement, and i had no choice but to take the photo handheld.

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture

I love the way the water is covering both its paws, almost like it is bending the water. However, i don't find anything else that is breathtaking whatsoever.

IMG_4517edit.jpg


Taken handheld with Shutter Priority Mode.
1/1000 seconds
f/5.6
ISO 200
Focal Length 250mm
 

Understood your situation, that's why don't see much of animal photo posted here.

Maybe due to the long focal length, there seems to be little out of focus and a bit of over exposure.
 

OOF but I like the general concept of an white tiger doing water bending. I like that your camera 'froze up' the water, making it more comprehensible as an object capable of being manipulated as per water bending.
 

Understood your situation, that's why don't see much of animal photo posted here.

Maybe due to the long focal length, there seems to be little out of focus and a bit of over exposure.
but animal photography can really be intriguing and fun!
yeap. over exposure and focus. noted.
how do i ensure that my photos are not over exposed and oof? sorry newbie here.

OOF but I like the general concept of an white tiger doing water bending. I like that your camera 'froze up' the water, making it more comprehensible as an object capable of being manipulated as per water bending.
thank you for the comment.

the top part of the fur is blown beyond recovery and can consider a tighter crop.
yeap. will try that out.
 

I just guess, perhaps the metering is on avarage weighing instead of spot, therefore giving an over exposure reading.
 

the cropped photo looks way better!
like everyone else said the top of e fur is a little blowout and the the face is a little oof but other then that i loved the picture and how u managed to froze the water!
 

You captured the right moment. Just have to focus the eyes and you got yourself a keeper. Try again on your next visit to the Zoo.
 

yup...eyes are important...- rest can be blur/bokeh, but eyes must be sharp.

try up the iso more, that should give u a faster shutter speed. BUT, i think the oof is not due to shake @ 1/1000s but rather ur focus is on the body, and @ f5.3 250mm, the bokeh made the face off focus
 

You captured the right moment. Just have to focus the eyes and you got yourself a keeper. Try again on your next visit to the Zoo.

yup...eyes are important...- rest can be blur/bokeh, but eyes must be sharp.

try up the iso more, that should give u a faster shutter speed. BUT, i think the oof is not due to shake @ 1/1000s but rather ur focus is on the body, and @ f5.3 250mm, the bokeh made the face off focus

ok thanks. so i should focus on the eyes. but i have a newbie question again. if it is a fast action shot, i won't have time to set the focus to its eyes. so how would you go about taking that shot?
 

At that shutter speed, it is highly unlikely for blurness caused by movement unless you've got really shaky hands. And at f5.6, even at 250mm I don't think it'll bokeh out the face even if the focus in on the body.

Probably a possible reason is that your lens is not tack sharp and this is reflected in your photo. Or maybe because of overexposure and the highlights are overblown.

And also noticed you used shutter priority to shoot which is the wrong mode to use if you wanna shoot fast moving subjects and freezing the moment. It is often misunderstood that shutter priority is used when you want to freeze action but in actual fact it is not.

Since the priority modes only affect shutter speed and aperture, if you want to achieve the fastest shutter speed in a given ISO setting, you should use aperture priority and open up to the widest aperture. You would notice that if you use shutter priority and set to a high shutter speed, your camera will automatically open your aperture to the biggest that's available on your lens. Remember, shutter speed can be set to any value on your camera but you will still be restricted to how wide your lens aperture is.

So what is shutter priority for? Its to deliberately shoot at slow shutter speeds for maybe an artistic effect. This causes your lens aperture to close. Also remember, a lens aperture can close more than it can open.

Hope this helps :)
 

At that shutter speed, it is highly unlikely for blurness caused by movement unless you've got really shaky hands. And at f5.6, even at 250mm I don't think it'll bokeh out the face even if the focus in on the body.

OT a bit... "bokeh" is not a verb, nor does it mean "out of focus".

Please get the terms right before propagating wrong info to others. :)
 

IMG_4517edit_1_1.jpg


i heeded the advice and cropped the photo.
anything else i should do to improve the picture?

The crop works much better. I would also try to run an unsharp mask or a similar sharpen routine, as it currently feels way to out of focus. It's like you focused on the water drops.
 

I do like the pic. :D
thank you :)

very national geographic, personally i like the final one

good job in capturing the moment!

hahahaha. this photograph has a lot of technical errors.
quite impossible for it to be national geographic.
anyway thanks for your comment.
and now you know why i love photoshop. :bsmilie:
 

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