A few from Philly zoo

1.

#2 would have been so much better if the DOF had been deeper

Concur on the depth of field on #2. The two birds are overexposed. The flamingo was in full sun with the background in the shade. Your camera made the mistake of trying to get it all properly exposed. Sacrifice the background next time. The out-of-focus cage wire kills the eagle shot. File it away.

The next time you're at the zoo, it's important to frame your shots so that there are no manufactured elements in it (e.g., cage wire). If you can't do this, then the shot just shouts out "Beautiful animal brutally snatched from its natural home and cruelly imprisoned in order to please it's human captors." There's no way of getting around it.

Thanks folks for the advice.
For #2, I had to open the lens wide due to it being a dark room..Is there anyway I could have underexposed and made it brighter in post without noise increase?

Thanks for the advice on the flamingo shot. I'll try underexposing the background next time I shoot in bright sunlight.

nüborn wrote in post #10388132
#2 would have been so much better if the DOF had been deeper

I'm a noob, are you saying he should of used a greater depth of field?

I am finding the focus is soft on these, plus there is alot of noise in the first two.

The fist one was a heavy crop. Hence the noise.
Do you find the 3rd one soft too?

Agree with previous observations. The third also has the cage bars across it. The trick for the ideal zoo photo is to make it look natural.

A zoo can have some really challenging situations.. cages, low-light, harsh-light, etc. I like the first, except that having to crop has ruined it's pop/sharpness. I concur with the frog shot.. It's a pretty good one really!! I just would've like to see little bit more of the guy in focus. The 3rd is a great subject.. but that darn cage.. Not much you can do about that.. Maybe shoot lions. Not bad on the shots though.. just keep shooting and learning..

Thanks for the critique guys
Josef - I liked the way you use your words! thanks!

With the eagle, you could have gotten a close up of the head and the cage would not be an issue.

Stefan