Lizard (I think ngama)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 ISO 400 1/6400sec f4
This lizard thought he was a real cool dude just a catchin' a few rays before huntin'. He was only little so I was on the verge of placing him in the macro section!
I used a wide aperture to isolate the head and as there were three of us I suspected he may become a little jitttery (one of my mates is exactly the most stealthy of persons!)
All comments most welcome

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Jonathan - We're always happy to have you post over here. I think it's actually an agama lizard if taken in Africa. Nice sharpness and bokeh but I would have gone for a bit more dof. You certainly had the ss. I don't love the somewhat central placement but difficult to find an alternate comp that works and still keep the outstretched leg. Perhaps a bit off the bottom would help.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Made for a bit of a centered composition with that kicked out leg, didn't he. Nicely detailed, healthy looking specimen.

[John Robinson]

Hi Jon
Certainly Agama- dozens of species. I might suggest going for a portrait crop ?Will it take it tight in ?
NIce natural shot. I love ,em when they do the head bob!!
Cheers
John

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jonathan, Rachels right, where was it taken BTW?

Looking at the techs, the SS is tad high, however given that you had 6400 certainly more DoF would have been good, but as again Rachel knows, you can easily go to f/16, 22+ trying to get most of the subject in focus especially with species like lizards or land/marine iguanas. Not much you can do about a central placement, so I think what you have is perhaps the best option. Any other option will cut down valuable IQ and you will just be throwing away good information. Overall the OP image is soft, adding more selective sharpening and a few curves adjustments for the mid tone blacks & whites and a few selective area exposure adjustments starts to bring out more character/definition within the face. Your call, but slightly darkening the BKG/FG with some radial/graduate filters I think helps to make the subject 'pop' a little more?

I think you could do a lot more within the RAW Jonathan as you have the right tools.

Hope this helps, Steve.

TFS

[Anette Mossbacher]

HI JOnathan,

great image of this lizard, Steve pushed it up very much and it looks great the RP. I love those lizard when they jump around all over, skittish creatures :bg3:

Have a great Sunday

Ciao
Anette

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks everyone as ever I really appreciate the feedback. I must admit I was entirely happy with my first image but on looking at Steve's version I agree a little more sharpening would have improved the image. I am not so sure about the other treatments - pleasant result but I think the colours in mine are closer to reality. Thanks for the repost, I will certainly go back and have another try with it, I tend to use a very similar approach for birds and other animal photography, I will be a little more adventurous in future, differing species would quite logically require differing approaches..

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jonathan,
neat shot of a too seldom presented animal group in here.
I am always happy to see some lizard images.
Great low POV and a neat comp.Good that you have been able to achieve light in those dark eyes, always a problem with these guys.Like the typical Agama pose.
Is looking like Agama agama, was it taken in Eastern Africa ?
Op is a bit flat in tone and sharpness , so Steve did a good job to make it more attractive.
But there are two areas which are looking very blurry with no detail at all , between the two legs on the breast and just above it in the shaded throat area, looks like Steve has used a blurring filter in parts ( frequency separation Steve ? ).

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

No blur Andreas, all as per my reply, I only added the suggested options which carry no blurring, I would put that down to low DoF as it was f/4, very shallow.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The image was taken in The Gambia - West Africa, the wide aperture was a deliberate choice.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice angle, pose and sweet BG, Jonathan! Steve's added some needed tonal depth and sharpness which was lacking for me in your OP.
What were you doing in The Gambia?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice angle, pose and sweet BG, Jonathan! Steve's added some needed tonal depth and sharpness which was lacking for me in your OP.
What were you doing in The Gambia?

Three of us went on an annual pilgrimage to The Gambia for a bird photography holiday, previously we went in November - more birds then, we were mistaken in thinking there would be more/different birds in January February, however the heat/humidity was much more tolerable, and we got more woodland species. I reckon I am about Gambia'd out now.