Hope I'm not being too flippant sharing this. I was searching for a shot to put on the back cover of the photobook I did of my recent trip to southern Africa. In a thought-bubble moment, this shot popped out. On a more serious note, a largely healed gash on the left zebra's rump is visible - no doubt from a recent encounter with a lion.
As usual, thank you all for looking and for any comments.
Technical: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 (MkII) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/4000 sec, f5.6, ISO 500. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements. Highlights reduced on background. Sharpened after final size reduction.
Hi Glenn, I don't find it, as you say 'flippant', but as an image, I don't really like it personally, mainly because it's from the rear and the the crop I find awkward, although I'm not too sure what else you could have done. The SS is a bit OTT, and going for DoF f/9 - f/11 so you have more DoF would have helped and brought down the SS too. Overall I find the presentation a bit flat in terms of colour, going 'richer' personally would improve it for me, however this is perhaps very reflective of the time of day and or how you wish to portray the image. In addition, having more 'perceptual' sharpness does also help and brings out a tad more detail/definition to parts of the subject i.e. tails. If your ethics allow I would loose the white areas in the BKG, Egrets perhaps as they don't add much, however that is a personal taste.
Just a thought, but how about going to B/W, but then adding a smidgen of colour, NOT Sepia????
Hi Glenn - We've all taken these tourist view images at some point whether to check our settings, out of frustration or just for fun. I find they work best (and have used at least one for a similar purpose as you intend) when they are of animals in environment moving away e.g a flock of ostriches running away, a line of elephants walking away, etc. I too am not sure that this really works with the zebras at the waterhole drinking, but really the only one who needs to like it is you. I do agree with Steve that you needed more dof and sharpness. I prefer his conversion to the color image. Sorry.
Thanks Rachel and Steve - no problems at all regarding your views on this and no need to apologise. I'm here to learn and a different viewpoint is always helpful and informative. It's easy to get a distorted view of one's own work especially if stared at for too long. I think the monochrome version works quite well and hadn't thought of that so thanks for the repost, Steve.
As for the shutter speed and aperture combination, this was a quick shot while a number of other things were going on. I often find myself caught out by this in that I'm more an opportunist than a planner most of the time when out photographing and spend more time firing left, right and centre than thinking about a specific shot and adjusting for it. Just showing my inexperience here! Having said that, I'm not sure why I'd want much more DOF. In this case would it have not brought more detail to the foreground and background? That's not what I'd have wanted in this situation but I know you are both more experienced and hence ask this question in all seriousness. I really do suffer terrible indecision when it comes to aperture and DOF when out in the field. Maybe I should just get into the habit of taking a series of shots at different settings and seeing what works.
Glenn - For me the suggestion of the additional dof is so all of the rumps are sharp. As posted the one to the left of center and a bit further away is soft.
A bit of fun
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