C and C please!

[swimmergrl]

I took this today at the local zoo. I wish I hadn't cut off the bottom of the tail, but it was about 20 degrees with windchill, so I was shivering a little. In cases like this, should I back off a little and plan to crop it? I was shooting in RAW for one of the first times, so I realized that my camera has a really tiny buffer! I missed several really great shots because the camera was busy! :(

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a16/rgugler/8f56d8fa.jpg

[The_Camera_Poser]

Backing off just a hair would have been good, and maybe using a monopod. Great look on the cat- you know it's cold when the snow leopard is all curled into a ball.

I put it through Photoshop CS3 for you- doing the following:

-Smart sharpened- radius 1 pixel, 246%
-Shadows +3
-Highlights +5
-Saturation +13

Any better?

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa128/bobthefish_album/8f56d8fa.jpg

[canonnoob]

Your shot is really really soft... but im sure if you soften it up it would turn out decent.. next time bump your shutter speed...

[Walczak Photo]

In cases like this, should I back off a little and plan to crop it?

I would say yes to this personally regardless of whether you're shivering or not. I know there are folks around here who always strive for "perfect framing" but it's been my general experience that with most animals it's usually a good idea to back off your framing just a little and allow for a crop later. Unless you have an animal such as a sloth that just moves really slow, it doesn't take a lot of movement on the animals part to blow a shot (although that probably wasn't the case here).

Of course...next time ya might want to dress a little warmer too :D.

I was shooting in RAW for one of the first times, so I realized that my camera has a really tiny buffer! I missed several really great shots because the camera was busy! :(

The comment surprises me a bit. According to your info at the bottom of your post you're using a 300D (to use Westerners I believe that's the original Rebel) and while certainly not as fast or "spacious" in regards to the buffer size as some of the newer cameras, I would think that you should be able to pop off at least 4 or 5 shots in a row before your buffer got full. I used to shoot with and still own my XT (350D to you) and they're not really that different and I don't really remember loosing any shots because of buffer issues. I think in this case, I might check your memory card...maybe try using a newer/faster CF card and see if that makes a difference.

In any regards, it's a pretty good shot and as Poser showed, it can be sharpened to an acceptable degree. With sharpening the eyes are pretty close and that's the important thing. The nice thing about shooting at zoos is you can always go back again on another day to get it right :D.

Just my $.02 worth as always!
Jim

[swimmergrl]

Thank for the comments. I think I may have messed up the sharpening (or at least made it worse) in PPing because I have a 30 day trial of Lightroom and was messing around with some sliders to see what happened! :o It was about 3:30pm, cloudy, and the snow leopard enclose is almost completely shaded to make it cooler for them in the summer, so I was using the slowest shutter speed I thought I could get away with. Should I shoot a higher shutter speed anyway, and just up the exposure compensation a ton? I don't have a good grasp of judging light yet. :( I also was working to keep the fence between us out of the pictures. The only photoshop I have is Photoshop Elements 2.0, because it came with my camera.

I don't have a monopod, and I'm not sure if I should get a monopod first, or a decent tripod first and a monopod later. I'm also still really confused on all the different accessories and specifications for tripods and don't really know what to look for in my price range.

The problem with my buffer it that you can pop off 4-5 shots, but then it seems like 1 shot ever 30 seconds until the buffer clears! I was actually using my new 8gb flash card, so could it be that is too big and slows it down? Should I get a 4gb or 2 gb card instead?


Of course...next time ya might want to dress a little warmer too .
I wish I could! I had long underwear and lots of layers down, but my Achilles heal is more like an Achilles hand! I can't operate the camera buttons with bulky (warm) gloves on, and I can't find my nice, nonbulky, warm hunting gloves, so all I had were little knit gloves, and after 30 minutes, I was cold!

Here are some pictures that show you the fence I was zooming through, and the shot I took right before the original one I posted, and a sharpened version of the 1st one.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a16/rgugler/snowleopardfence.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a16/rgugler/snowleopardlicking.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a16/rgugler/Snowleopard.jpg

[The_Camera_Poser]

I think if you went back to the zoo and retook your shots, you'd be very happy with the results. For handheld, they are pretty sharp when sharpened up. Other than cutting the tail, these are good shots, and you should be happy with them. I really like the second shot, better than the third.

I have a monopod, which I've used once. I have a tripod I use occassionally, but I find that it is a major hassle in zoos- too bulky.

[Walczak Photo]

It was about 3:30pm, cloudy, and the snow leopard enclose is almost completely shaded to make it cooler for them in the summer, so I was using the slowest shutter speed I thought I could get away with. Should I shoot a higher shutter speed anyway, and just up the exposure compensation a ton? I don't have a good grasp of judging light yet. :(

I shoot mostly critters and as such I do A LOT of shooting in zoos. Usually I have my camera set in AP mode (Aperture Priority) and I let the camera handle the shutter speed...unless of course it gets too slow and then I switch to manual (or use a flash). In most cases unless I'm trying to do something specific, I'll also have the lens wide open which gives me enough shutter speed most of the time (there are exceptions of course). In your shot here the leopard was fairly...umm...sedate so you had time to fiddle with the camera settings. In most cases though I tend to think the best looking shots are when the given animal is active and most of the time that requires your attention to be on the animal and not the camera. Next time you shoot at a zoo, trying shooting in AP mode with the lens wide open (unless it's a f/1.8 or faster lens...then you may need to stop down to f/4).

I also was working to keep the fence between us out of the pictures. Yea...that's always a pain in the butt. If it isn't a fence then it's dirty glass with smudges from little kids pressing their greasy little faces against it or it's all torn up from the animal on the other side. Of course if it's clean glass, then you have to deal with reflections! LOL!!! From that standpoint, zoo's can be very difficult environments to shoot in so know that you are off to a good start here!

I don't have a monopod, and I'm not sure if I should get a monopod first, or a decent tripod first and a monopod later. I'm also still really confused on all the different accessories and specifications for tripods and don't really know what to look for in my price range.I actually have several tripods and a couple of mono pods and honestly I don't usually use them at the zoo...as Poser said, it's a bit of a hassle. To be completely honest, about the only time I use a tripod at the zoo is if I'm playing around with external flash trying to get some "creative lighting". This way I can mount the flash on the tripod and put it somewhere to the side of the animal...makes for some interesting shots.

In most cases at a zoo, if you really need to steady the camera you can usually find something that will work in a pinch...prop the camera up against a wall or a window, use an available hand rail, etc.. The up side about those cages and all those dirty windows is that there's almost always something you can use to support your camera! LOL!

Now that said...when you do decide to buy, I would go for a tripod before you get a mono pod. While mono pods do have their uses (they make great walking sticks!) most folks get a lot more use out of a decent tripod. My next comment is going to be a bit subjective and I -know- there are folks who would disagree with this, but before you go out and blow a wad on an expensive tripod, just get yourself a decent cheapy first. Again to be honest here, I've been shooting for many years now and I've never spent more than $30 for a tripod...and personally I wouldn't spend more than $70 on one even today. Like the camera itself, everyone seems to have their own personal tastes when it comes to tripods, so don't waste a lot of money until you can decide what you really need. In fact, flee markets and classified ads are a great place to start. Just get yourself something that's going to be reasonably stable and is tall enough for your needs. If you need something better later down the road you can always get it then and use the one you get now as a backup...lots of folks will toss the old one in their car trunk just so they always have one with them.

The problem with my buffer it that you can pop off 4-5 shots, but then it seems like 1 shot ever 30 seconds until the buffer clears! I was actually using my new 8gb flash card, so could it be that is too big and slows it down? Should I get a 4gb or 2 gb card instead?Hmmm...it is possible it could be the card but I wouldn't suspect the actual capacity of the card to be the problem. If you look at most memory cards, they do have different "write speeds" but most newer memory cards should be faster than your 300D can actually write. What I would probably do here is pickup a cheapy 1 gig card and see how it compares with your 8 gig as far as write speed goes. The price on 1 gig cards has come WAY down in the past year or so...you can pick up brand name 1 gig cards such as PNY at places like Staples, Micro Centers, etc., for around $10...if nothing else, it never hurts to have an extra gig of memory card space :D. If there's no noticeable difference then it's possible that it could just be the camera itself...that 300D is "old" by today's standards.


I had long underwear and lots of layers down, but my Achilles heal is more like an Achilles hand! I can't operate the camera buttons with bulky (warm) gloves on, and I can't find my nice, nonbulky, warm hunting gloves, so all I had were little knit gloves, and after 30 minutes, I was cold!I'm the same way...I just can't shoot with gloves on. Go into some place like Gander Mountain or even any good sporting goods store (Dick's, Duhnam, etc) and pick yourself up a couple of those $.99 hand warmers...they make a world of difference! Put one in each pocket and when your not shooting, keep your hands in your pockets to keep them warm!





Alrighty...just an extra $.02 worth. I hope it helps!
Jim

[joedlh]

I realized that my camera has a really tiny buffer! I missed several really great shots because the camera was busy! :(


Does this also happen when you are in warmer surroundings? The reason I ask is that standard flash card write speeds are slower in cold settings. I use Sandisk Extreme III and IV cards (broader temperature range) exclusively for this very reason. I often do cold weather shooting.

[Walczak Photo]

The problem with my buffer it that you can pop off 4-5 shots, but then it seems like 1 shot ever 30 seconds until the buffer clears! I was actually using my new 8gb flash card, so could it be that is too big and slows it down? Should I get a 4gb or 2 gb card instead?

Another thing that crossed my mind on this issue is...where did you get the memory card from? Is it a brand name card purchased at a store or was it obtained off the internet somewhere? The reason I ask is I know a while back there was a really big hoo-ha about the number of bogus memory cards on the market and particularly on places like Ebay. They looked like the real deal but they were really cheap imitations. I seem to remember that at the time the 1 gig Sandisk cards for example were going for around $50 (this was a few years ago) and you could pick up these bogus cards for like $6 on Ebay. In some cases they worked ok and in other cases they were complete crap. I do remember that one of the biggest issues with the cheap cards was the write speed (as well as capacity issues...cards marked as 1 gig that would only right 512 megs, etc). I know I have a couple of the bogus memory sticks for my Sony H1...and it's really hard to tell them from the real McCoy. In my case they worked fine but I know there's folks who had some real serious problems with them.

Also, if you got the camera as a "kit" again thru the internet or something and it came with the memory card...again it's quite possible that it's a bogus card. There are quite a few "discount camera stores" on the internet that sell a lot of this crap (places like "Banana Boat Cameras", etc). They usually sell tons of gray market items and have the high pressure sales staff as well. If this even remotely sounds like the case then I'd suggest heading to a legit retailer and trying a cheap 1 gig card to see if it makes a difference. In fact, depending on where you live, Circuit City is closing down a lot of their stores and you can pick up some dirt cheap bargains :D.

Anyways, it was just another thought that went thru my head that I thought was worth tossing out there.

Peace,
Jim

[LeuceDeuce]

Since you already framed too close on the bottom, I felt the whole composition could be improved by tightening up the crop.

Not sure if this works or not (not a wildlife photographer) so I'll leave the final decision up to you.
_

[Jim M]

All things considered, not too bad. I suspect most of the problem is just being unfamiliar with the post processing programs. Your second set of images is vastly better. On the original, I can see the ghost image of the fence, which reveals itself as sort of a loss of contrast and a little softness in a grid pattern. I find that it helps to have the eyes in an opening in the grid and it looks like you did that. Sometimes it is really hard to see in the viewfinder, but if you can, at least you will get the eyes sharp and contrasty. I'm familiar with those exhibits and although they are not that unpleasant to the naked eye, I'm sure they are a challenge to shoot through.

[swimmergrl]

Thanks for all the info! I haven't had time to really read through everything and respond like I want to because I have too much to do for school! I have a 5 page paper and a 4 page paper to write before Friday, and hopefully I can really look at all the recommendations between that and studying for finals next week!

Thanks again so much! I've always had problems getting the visualizations I see in my head across on paper (thankfully not with fabric!), so I really want to know what I'm doing wrong and can improve on!

Rachel

[Jim M]

An addendum – I looked at the EFIX data and noticed that this was shot with the lens wide open and at 1/125 with a 200mm lens. I'm surprised you did as well as you did with that combination. I'm not familiar with that Tokina lens, but generally it is a rare lens that is as sharp as it can be at maximum aperture. Also, it is extremely rare to find anyone that can keep from shaking the camera at a shutter speed slower than the focal length of the lens, and the longer the lens, the more that holds true. The crop sensor probably makes it worse, since a 200mm lens becomes effectively a 300+mm lens. In this case, I think I would have bumped the ISO up from 400 to 800. Grain/noise is usually less objectionable than image softness IMHO.