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Chameleon

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MD11Pilot

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Danny
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Drew
Chameleon taken at Moody Gardens with my Rebel XTi through the glass.

Not sure how to really post them here with all the necessary information and at a good size.

ISO 400, 45 MM (stock lens) 5.6 1/60 Flash On and AWB

http://aggiedad.smugmug.com/Other/Moody-Gardens/i-Swj9KC2/0/XL/IMG8304-XL.jpg

Thanks gixxerjasen. Here is my smugmug link.

IMG8304-XL.jpg
 

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You'll want to host them somewhere like smugmug or photobucket, that allows remote linking, then embed them into your post with the IMG tags. Or use the little
insertimage.gif
button above where you are editing your post to help you put the link to your picture in your post.
 
Nice shot! I like his (her?) little foot up off the branch :-)
 
Since you posted in the critique forum I'd like to offer up this...

Your shot would greatly benefit from two things - one is easy the other not so much so.

Easy - Re-crop to a tighter view of said reptile. The dark background that's dominating the picture is - well, does nothing for the photograph. I'd post a suggestion but did not want to edit your photo without permission.

Not So Easy - Re-shoot with a greater depth of field. You did well with getting the eyeball in focus but there's more to this creature than the eye - an extra couple f-stops would really help.

I love animal pics - they never complain about how they look in the final shot. Keep working at it and good luck.
 
txbanditrydr said:
Since you posted in the critique forum I'd like to offer up this...

Your shot would greatly benefit from two things - one is easy the other not so much so.

Easy - Re-crop to a tighter view of said reptile. The dark background that's dominating the picture is - well, does nothing for the photograph. I'd post a suggestion but did not want to edit your photo without permission.

Not So Easy - Re-shoot with a greater depth of field. You did well with getting the eyeball in focus but there's more to this creature than the eye - an extra couple f-stops would really help.

I love animal pics - they never complain about how they look in the final shot. Keep working at it and good luck.
Click to expand...

I was flying out to California tonight and reading an article about photography and I thought the same thing, closer crop would make him stand out better. As far as the F stops...still trying to learn the relationships of aperture and shutter speed. I had this shot on program and forced flash. Not much time as we were there with my five and two year old grandkids ....so it was hurry hurry hurry.

Thanks for the tips. I have several underwater photos that I will post as soon as I get home.

PS permission always granted. I am a sponge.
 
It's a great shot. Yet there's some things to consider in the future when this type of opportunity presents itself. The biggest one is as mentioned, depth of field. The eyeball is spot-on in focus. For what you did, you certainly picked the proper area as the focal point. Using a greater depth of field, you could have had much more of snout/horns in focus as well which would have given a different perspective. Not good. Not bad. Just different.

I'm no expert, but I did take liberty in a couple things just to show how it could look if done a bit differently for a crop as well as a few minor post-processing things. The crop emphasizes the subject, and you'll note I also put the little fellow in the left 1/3 of the frame. The Rule of Thirds works well for most images as that's how your brain and eye like to look at images. And he's looking to camera right, so he's in the left third providing space for him to look through. Imagine if he was in the left third and still looking right. He'd be looking off the image at what?

Post-processing, or PP, is a highly subjective area as at that point, you are creating something.

From your image, all I did was:
1. A different crop
2. A slight bump in saturation by 2 points (Using Lightroom v2.2)
3. A slight bump in contrast by 12 points
4. A slight increase in the blacks by 4 points
5. A moderate amount of "highlight recovery", or simply took some of the brightness of the flash out of the image by 38 points.

Still the same basic image, but slightly different.
i-Zb3mfMM-XL.jpg



.
 
MD11Pilot said:
Beautiful. Thanks for the pointers.
Click to expand...

Thanks... and you're welcome.

Also, in hindsight, I'm really thinking a greater DOF wouldn't necessarily add anything to this image. The focal point is the eye and it's beautifully captured, sharp and colorful. Increasing DOF, in my opinion would only pull away from that focal point and I'm not sure in a good way. Hmmm.... :ponder:


Heck, for fun, let's go BIG with a crop. Again, a little more bump in the blacks and pulling off a bit of the flash a tad bit more.
i-Qs23N2f-XL.jpg


.
 
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Too cool. I'm jealous of the sharpness of that photo. Great job. :clap:
 
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