A trip to the zoo with sigma 70-200 f2.8

well guys, I got my Sigma APO 70-200mm f2.8 EX a couple of days ago and took a trip to the zoo today to see how it performs. I am not a pro or anything so c&c are welcome to improve here a few pics I took today, thsi is from the Los Angeles zoo, Im going to the san diego zoo on the weekend hopefully I can get better pics, I wasn't that satisfied with this trip since it was my first outing with the lens. some of these pics are on their respective lens threads but, I tought they belong here too, enjoy...

Most of these are good compositionally, but I see you were in full manual, and most of these are underexposed. When I goto the zoo, I just stay in Av all day, and adjust accordingly based on the effect I want, or based on the light available. Just watch your highlights, and black areas cause with the harsh lighting it can be pretty difficult to get it right consistently.

thanks acid, I tried Av and Tv for a while and didn't like how they came out, maybe I just haven't trained my eyes to look at the lcd in the cam and judge the pic. Heres another one...

I had my Sigma at the zoo this weekend as well, I had issues getting correct exposures with predominantly white or black animals.

The key to successfully using Av is to expose on a portion of the animal you feel is representative of the necessary exposure. Sometimes this can be, expose for the highlights, for an all white animal, or expose for the blacks for a black bear for example.

Explaining that kinda makes it sound like a bad idea :P But it's what I like to use as a technique.

Maybe you can take some of that as useful

caiguar wrote in post #3023608
I just haven't trained my eyes to look at the lcd in the cam and judge the pic.

Don't. Learn to look at your histogram instead, it's much more accurate.

will do bieber. Here look, I changed the tiger pic, let me know what went wrong with that one, actually most of these pics are brighter but, I messed around with photoshop and i'm guessing my monitor is too bright.

sounds like an idea, I will try that out this weeknd since I'm going to the San Diego zoo to get more practice, hopefully I can come out with a lot more keepers than this time.

I was expecting not to get a good percentage of keepers since it was my first trip with this lens. Hopefully with the advice here I will start to develop a technique that works for me.

aCiD99 wrote in post #3023701
I had my Sigma at the zoo this weekend as well, I had issues getting correct exposures with predominantly white or black animals.

The key to successfully using Av is to expose on a portion of the animal you feel is representative of the necessary exposure. Sometimes this can be, expose for the highlights, for an all white animal, or expose for the blacks for a black bear for example.

Explaining that kinda makes it sound like a bad idea :P But it's what I like to use as a technique.

Maybe you can take some of that as useful

Awesome, I want to make a point of going to a lot of zoos this summer myself.

I like the tiger better now also.