Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

[martyjward]

After a not so good Friday (shopping for dresses and Shoes with the Wife and Kids)

and an even poorer Saturday (wing mirror smashed for the second time since July)

we decided to go to the Zoo. First real outing with the E-M1 and 40-150 2.8 this year, it was the only lens I needed to use.

couple of birds during the Birds of prey display - not sure about these

Vulture in Flight by MartyJWard_Foto, on Flickr

@85mm f3.2 1/800th ISO200

Black Kite in Flight by MartyJWard_Foto, on Flickr

@40mm f3.8 1/800th ISO200

and this one of their female Amur Leopard

Amur Leopard Drinking by MartyJWard_Foto, on Flickr

@150mm f2.8 1/400th ISO 200

[Miketoll]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

I like the bird shots but they could be a bit sharper, I just wonder if you should have used a faster shutter speed? Always easy to be wise after the event but the ISO could have been put up a stop or two with no real detrimental effect allowing for a much faster shutter speed. I find even horses at local level doing jumps need at least 1/1000 sec.

[KeithL]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

BIF shots are never easy; the background of trees does nothing for them - too dark.
The leopard shot is nice, a bit different. Even with that, though, the background is a bit dark and mottled, and detracts a bit from the leopard's spots. Looks like that zoo isn't the best place for photography!

[Zuiko]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

After the horrors of family shopping and a minor motoring accident I should think that the zoo was ideal therapy. It's true that the BIFSs could have benefitted from faster shutter speeds but the main problem is that they are a bit lost against the busy background. Good practice though. The leopard is much better.

[martyjward]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

Birds aren't really my thing, I just took the opportunity as they was there (mostly to practice my tracking). I'll try a much faster shutter speed next time.

I did try shooting when the birds we higher in the sky but they were silhouetted so really dark, I might try a pull one back from RAW and see how good I can get it.

Do you think a masking the Leopard and darkening the background would help move attention away from it?

[OlyPaul]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

Do you think a masking the Leopard and darkening the background would help move attention away from it?

Yes I do and also cloning some of the large highlights out but also after looking at the full size image I can see that focus was on the body and that the face is not quite sharp, so I would recommend some selective sharpening on the face.

For your consideration..I will delete it later.

[martyjward]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

Quite possible my focus point was off - she had just walked out from behind some logs so wasn't ready and grabbed the pic.

That's some amazing processing - gonna take me a bit longer to do something similar myself. All a learning curve though.

Would sharpening the RAW file be better than the image in photoshop after processing the RAW file?

[OM USer]

Re: Birds in flight & Leopard from the Zoo

I like the leopard shot. Having the forepaw in the frame rather than concentrating on the face makes it a winning shot for me.