Lemur

I loved the look on this Lemur's face and had to try and capture it.
I used a Canon EOS 350D with a Sigma 70-300m Lense.
The EXif data is
Exposure: 1/320 sec at f/5.6
Metering Mode: Patterm
No Flash
ISO 400
Focal Length: 238mm

Hi Nigel,

Yes this is better. I'm glad you withstand the criticism.

The focus is fine and the expression on the Lemur's face is engaging.

I'd love more of the Lemur. The curve of the back is only beginning and IMHO m ight better balance the picture.

One thing to consider is that routine use of wide aperture removes the context of the subject. That's perfectly fine if that's your intention. If you have a title, then maybe that context is out of place for what you are conveying in the image.

If there were bars behind or some other aspect of captivity then that expression might carry a unique meaning, for example. I'm not daring to say what you should do, however I'm just suggesting the consequences of allowing context and of adding a title.

Asher

Yes, the Lemur is better than the others. The light in the eyes works well. Do you do any sharpening after you converted the images to jpg?
Angela

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Nigel,

Yes this is better. I'm glad you withstand the criticism.

The focus is fine and the expression on the Lemur's face is engaging.

I'd love more of the Lemur. The curve of the back is only beginning and IMHO m ight better balance the picture.

One thing to consider is that routine use of wide aperture removes the context of the subject. That's perfectly fine if that's your intention. If you have a title, then maybe that context is out of place for what you are conveying in the image.

If there were bars behind or some other aspect of captivity then that expression might carry a unique meaning, for example. I'm not daring to say what you should do, however I'm just suggesting the consequences of allowing context and of adding a title.

Asher

Click to expand...

Thank you Asher, I have some other captures of the lemurs with a wider dof and showing the whole animal, I just thought that the backgrounds may have been too distractiing.

Angela Weil said:

Yes, the Lemur is better than the others. The light in the eyes works well. Do you do any sharpening after you converted the images to jpg?
Angela

Click to expand...

Thanks Angela. The only editing that I performed on this was to use Unsharp Mask in Gimp. This was to improve the deffinition of the whiskers.

Nigel,

Backgrounds being blurred is an artistic choice one has to make. However, there are consequences. As I have said that includes lack of context.

The other issue is that having everything in focus and a wider capture allows one to carefully achieve improved composition when one is facing this challenge with some issues.

Sure one can crop tightly, that is the ideal when one has chosen what makes the subject "complete" in your composed picture.

The subject does not have to be totally included but the image must not appear incomplete. Composition, where lines, patterns space draw the eyes, counter balance and satisfy can be tough to optimize in a split seconf of capture.

So if compositon is one of the key limitations of one's work, then that needs to be dealt with.

My own belief is that one can restart the creative process today while sitting at your computer monitor.

This is not the classical or either the ideal approach as the strength of your own ideal compositon likely is made, (for static objects especially), only just before the original shutter click.

So I'd meld together Don's approach of tight framing which will test you and then always adding wider frames too. Then you can evaluate your success and always rescue your shoot.

Asher

Thanks again for the valuable advice Asher.