Hi, I'm a new member here. A beginning photography enthusiast. My name is Carrie, and I've loved taking pics since I was a kid. I like close-ups especially, and tend to crop things very close.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any thoughts on one picture in particular...it's the one of the antelope type animal (my bad, forgot to write down what type of animal it was) with the green background. It was taken at the San Francisco zoo. No flash, with a Nikon D70s and an 80-200mm vr lens. You are welcomed to critique the other pics as well, I'm not thrilled with my indoor, no flash pics (giraffes)...still working on limiting the blur.

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=16510980&uid=8956112

Thanks,
Carrie

Welcome, it's great that youre so enthusiastic about photography! Nice to have you on NWP.

Cropping is as important as the capture, and it is like anything else, if you want to get better, you have to practice. I like tight, almost all my stuff is tight, but that said, I crop tight for a specific reason, I don’t cut into a shot just to make it tight, with the crop, you’re trying to bring attention to specific details, or allow very prominent one's to just splash the image thereby allowing the viewer to use their imagination. Or, you crop tight to help tell the story. Even tight crops can be lose if not cropped correctly . . .

I know I would like for you to post one or two shots at a time. It will help you much more if we can target one shot at a time. So, post one or two and well try it again. . .

Tony

Thanks Tony. I'm afraid I'm not following you on the crop subject. None of my pics were cropped, these photos are straight out of the camera, no altering other than to reduce the image size was done. I guess with that said...I have a thing for eyes, and usually my closeups are to highlight the eyes.

I don't really care about the other 5 pics on my photo page that I posted above, my main interest is for a critique of the bottom right picture...green background.

Thanks,
Carrie

But you DO use your lens to crop....(decide the frame space....and how to use it) he isnt talking about a crop in Post Process. He is talking about using yur frame space effectivly....and tightening down on your subject. I am a landscape photographer so my glals are a little diffrent.

Your premise is good, your not executing it 100%. Cropping tight for tightness sake dosnt guarantee you capture the essance of your subject. (it is somthing that eludes me in portrait photography...so I clam to be no expert in how to do it...Tony is probably a better source of what TO do...lol)

If your anything like me your always searching for the next level up in your skillsets. I am sure Tony will come back and explain further.

Roman

Roman did a find job of explaining my point. Really the bigger point is, as Roman stated, leering to capture a story, or only what's necessary to tell the story, nothing more, nothing less. Post that shot of the little girl and I'll show you what I'm talking about. . . .

Cropping, or framing the subject is as important as the exposure, lens selection, and technique. Lager mp cameras give us more crop room because of their high pixel count, but it's best to do your "cropping" as well as you can within the limits the camera. After you take the shot, you do have to crop it to a standards size and even that takes a little effort at time. . .

Angles and shadows also are very important to a great image.

I'll only tell you what I think, I'm not an expert, but if you’re willing, I'll tell you what I know, just post a few shots. . .

One more word on cropping. You should also have an idea of the output medium for the shot. If it's 8x10 you should shoot it as an 8x10, not a 5X7, OR A 4X6!

Hum. . . Where did she go?

This is the pic of the little girl, but in all honesty, I was really interested in a critique of the animal picture. This picture was taken very quickly simply to get a picture of my daughter eating her first lollipop...I wasn't thinking of technique, but rather get the picture before she drops the lollipop on the floor.

Well, I have no idea how to upload a pic so the only way to see it is via my webpage listed up above.

[image]http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?&p=999&uid=8956112&gid=16510980&&imgid=253801516&offset=0[/image]

Okay, you can use any photo you want, i only point out the picture of you beautiful little girl because it was the first one that came up and I have a little girl about her age.

So, post the animal shot and we'll go over that one.

As per posting you photo, i just upload it after i hit the continue button at the bottom of my message. The next step allows you to grab a photo and upload it . . .

Ok, trying the pic again...

I should say that there was a barrier from his chest down and I didn't want that in the picture, which is why you can't see all of his body. No flash used.

If the purpose here is to document the head shot and partial back hair of a whatever it is deer, than you have done that. My first comment would have been to shoot this type of close up in portrait orientation, or back way out and give him lost of room on one side or the other.

If ever I shoot animals that have tags or collars - and there are wild ones that do have them, I decide right up front whather their environment and their jewelry are important, if not, I try to shoot them doing things that show action, but DO not expose their tags – unless I’m doing some kind of documentary on the animal itself then the tag and the pen they are in become critical. You can choose to use their environment to your advantage or not.

This happens to be one of the main reasons most of us like to be told of captive shots (sometimes its easy to fake a captive into a wild shot).

There are limits to what you can accomplish in a zoo, on the other hand, zoos alow you to control the environment and to some extent the animal, you can get close, and youre safe.

Unfortuately, if time is critical, you have to wait until the animal is in a position or a place that will allow you the most optimum shot, even if that means you have to go back 5 times, or sit there for two hours or more.

It happens to me all the time, only I'm chasing wild ones with no fences but the point is I've waited days and spent lots of money on travel only to come home with a goose egg because the light was wrong, or the animals were not around or whatever. Today I waisted two hours and came home with negative 10 bucks in gas. . .

So, I don’t know how much more I can tell you about that shot since the limitations of it are what they are.

That said, here's one example of how I might try to go tight on him rather than letting the fence push my framing. It's a full frame crop, that still shows the distinguishing characteristics of this animal, (back hair, eyes, face, and big ears) but looks planned and thought out.

Your shot was forces because of the constraints of the zoo and you let that tell you how to shoot this animal. Keep in mind, you may have to sit there and wait for as many hours as it takes to get the shots you want, if you don’t have time for that, force it like I did. . .

Cheers . .

Ps, I also did a little ps work on it. . .