Kangaroo and Joey

[jansen]

I took this shot at the Tanganyika Wildlife Park and it seems a bit soft to me. I did have to crop the picture because of the path and the lens I had on the camera and the camera was handheld. Any suggestions on what I could have done to improve the sharpness?

Your guidance is greatly appreciated.





Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

[wildbird]

Maybe try getting it away from the fence - looks very unnatural, but considering you are in America, any kangaroos are going to look like they are in unnatural surroundings (or you have drank way too much and are seeing them!).

Seems quite sunny, maybe try a smaller aperture, maybe a bit faster as well - easier to light up a pic than darken something that has blown out areas where it was too bright. Other than that, maybe something post processing, but I dont do any of that sorry.

[wildbird]

Just looked at it again, that is a fairly handy setup you have, I would look at technique over equipment - maybe try getting closer? On a different angle, maybe more front on with a large aperture to get doe and joey in focus, and maybe crop that fence out more? The fact I have seen over 1,000,000 roos in the wild, they dont seem to have that much interest photographically to me :-)

[jansen]

Thanks for the input. I'm not sure I could get a different angle or make the kangaroo move, I was required to stay on the path and the path didn't have any better locations to shoot from. Below is the original photo, maybe I could have cropped it differently?



Can you tell from the photo if it is soft because I got the focus in the wrong plane or because I was moving too much (or too slow a shutter speed)?

Thanks for you the advice and help. Recently got the 7D and I am trying to improve my technique.