OrangUtan Reservation

[nue1224]

I'm new at photography. I've got my first D-SLR camera just a month ago (28th June, 2011) from my lovely GF..

first, I try some macro. taking a picture of any object at my home, its fun. then I do street photograph. and lately, I've found that I'm fall in love with wildlife.


"please save me" by _Nue

then I realized that it is more difficult to do this. I think, maybe my gear isn't compatible with this kind of object. right now, I only have Canon EoS 1100D with EF-S 18-55mm lens kit and Sigma 18-200mm DC OS lens..

I need to know, which gears I should have to do wildlife photography. and how do I improve my shots?

[ccting]

I think you should fill light the orang utan.

->Increase the exposure
-> grey out the background

I can see yellow bukey background. it is quite
distracting. I am more attracted with the background
then your kingkong.

Well, some people say if negative space too dark
to serve any detail, then it will be dead space.
Some disagree. There are so many contraversy about this.
Lets think. If i can see where the orang utan sits, which
is the very dark space on bottom left corner, then this pic
may tell more story.

If you can lighten the orang utan, then you can
make this orang utan pop out. Then it will be a credit

I read about articles, and you should frame the whole,
unless u have specific purpose. Are you showing that
the orang utan is hesitating? If then crop the whole face with hand.
The rest you exclude it.

Well you need to double think about my comment, as i am a bit more experience than you in term if the date you bought the first cam. I bought on 23 june 2011. hahaha, 4 days earlier than u ..hahahah


How come you buy duplicate zoom range 18-200? Is it better than Nikkor 18-200mm?

[nue1224]

Originally Posted by ccting

I think you should fill light the orang utan.

->Increase the exposure
-> grey out the background

I can see yellow bukey background. it is quite
distracting. I am more attracted with the background
then your kingkong.

Well, some people say if negative space too dark
to serve any detail, then it will be dead space.
Some disagree. There are so many contraversy about this.
Lets think. If i can see where the orang utan sits, which
is the very dark space on bottom left corner, then this pic
may tell more story.

If you can lighten the orang utan, then you can
make this orang utan pop out. Then it will be a credit

I read about articles, and you should frame the whole,
unless u have specific purpose. Are you showing that
the orang utan is hesitating? If then crop the whole face with hand.
The rest you exclude it.

Well you need to double think about my comment, as i am a bit more experience than you in term if the date you bought the first cam. I bought on 23 june 2011. hahaha, 4 days earlier than u ..hahahah


How come you buy duplicate zoom range 18-200? Is it better than Nikkor 18-200mm?

thx for the advice..

I really doesn't have any idea 'bout that.. lol..
I just accidentally come to that reservation without preparing anything. that place, quite dark when I try to get closer with him at one of the cottage. but the outsides are bright enough to blown up if I sets longer exposure.

'bout that 18-200mm, I don't know how it come.. lol..
I love to travel, visiting anywhere I want to. I just thinking to buy a lens that can do both; portrait, and landscape zooming. I don't know the condition on my target place, so I don't want to risk my camera when I change the lens at that unknown place, it can be dirty, salty, wet, etc. so, I bought that lens. I'm not experiencing any other lens, so I can't compare it with Nikkor..

[Doug Sundseth]

Your gear should be fine for shots like this. I assume that the Sigma is fairly comparable the Nikon 18-200, which works well for me when shooting wildlife. I'd really like a longer lens for some shots, but the price of a nice, long lens is comparable to the price of a used car (or a new car for a really long lens), so that's not happening any time soon.

Your problems here are with technique, not gear.

The bright background to the photo draws the viewer's eye away from the dark subject. I'd recommend composing (or cropping) to remove as much of that from the frame as possible and then dropping the brightness of what remains in post-processing.

It looks like the bright background also fooled your camera's light meter into thinking the scene was brighter than it was, resulting in the primary subject being underexposed. You can fix this by recomposing or adding exposure compensation or both.

Alternatively, you could add light to the subject in any of several ways if the location allows that.

I'd really like to see either more or less of the orangutan. If you shoot so that the face fills much of the frame, you'll get interesting details and a well-designed composition. If you shoot so that you aren't cutting off parts of the orangutan's arm, you can also get a well-designed composition. Right now, you're sort of in the middle, and it looks awkward.

TL;DR - Brighter subject, darker background, better crop.

[nue1224]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

Your gear should be fine for shots like this. I assume that the Sigma is fairly comparable the Nikon 18-200, which works well for me when shooting wildlife. I'd really like a longer lens for some shots, but the price of a nice, long lens is comparable to the price of a used car (or a new car for a really long lens), so that's not happening any time soon.

Your problems here are with technique, not gear.

The bright background to the photo draws the viewer's eye away from the dark subject. I'd recommend composing (or cropping) to remove as much of that from the frame as possible and then dropping the brightness of what remains in post-processing.

It looks like the bright background also fooled your camera's light meter into thinking the scene was brighter than it was, resulting in the primary subject being underexposed. You can fix this by recomposing or adding exposure compensation or both.

Alternatively, you could add light to the subject in any of several ways if the location allows that.

I'd really like to see either more or less of the orangutan. If you shoot so that the face fills much of the frame, you'll get interesting details and a well-designed composition. If you shoot so that you aren't cutting off parts of the orangutan's arm, you can also get a well-designed composition. Right now, you're sort of in the middle, and it looks awkward.

TL;DR - Brighter subject, darker background, better crop.

once again, thx for the advice
I'll try to crop it, so the brighter image are just the face and hand of the orang utan.. and I've found it works.. thx..