The Zoo

Few pics for the zoo. CC welcome

1.

The noise doesn't bother me. I love #2 and #3, not that I have anything against zebras

Some of the best zoo pics I have seen in a long time! Great shots!

Great shots. I really like the tiger image and the way it fills the frame.

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EOS 3 (35mm film), EOS 40D, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L, 70-200 f/4L, TAMRON SP AF17-50mm f/2.8
This is What I Can Do with My EOS 40D

Nice pics! What lens did you use?

Thanks guys!! Mostly 70-200 F4

I like them, they don't have a "zoo" feel ...the zebra was putting on a show for you!

Thanks!

I think I've looked at your work on other parts of POTN here and again I think it's wonderful work. The shots of the Tiger and the Zebra are just wonderful! Great captures to say the least. I think the only thing I would really change is I might punch up the saturation and contrast just a bit more -or- maybe play around with over-lays a bit...but that's my own personal taste.

As far as the noise goes, I'm not really seeing too much in the smaller size images here, but I'm sure you can see it "full size". What I would suggest there is a little "selective noise reduction". Using the Tiger shot as an example, even at the small size here, you can see a bit of noise. Where it's particularly evident is in the background...because you have a limited DOF there, the "smooth" background makes the noise stand out a bit more. I would separate the Tiger into it's own layer and then smooth out the background a bit with some Gaussian blur etc. (I actually use "Lens Blur" with a layer mask on the channels and a gradient to increase the look of the DOF which also cleans up a lot of the noise in the background). One of the nice things about animals is that the noise isn't as evident in the fur compared with skin on humans. By cleaning up the noise in the background, the over-all image tends to look less noisy...even though it really isn't (in my humble opinion at least). You can do the same thing with the other shots too...any place where the image isn't in sharp focus (background or as in the last zebra shot, the foreground) just blur it a little more to make the noise go away .

BTW...you might want to back down the yellows in the second zebra shot just a bit...the grass in the first zebra shot (and the tiger shot) looks nice and green but it's a little too yellowish in the second shot.

Anyways, again some great work there...well done!
Peace,
Jim

Thanks a lot I will check out the blurs when I get home... haven't done too much with those. I did try with a simple NR filter, but that caused too much quality loss.

Nice timing on the first shot. The images look good.