Critique Wildlife Photography

[meganwebb]

I have a lot more pictures if you were interesed in me putting some more up for critiquing just let me know

[Richard]

Hi meganwebb, welcome to the forum.

For me, shot one could do with a little more contrast, and shot 5 is a little dark. I really like the squirl shot, and the back lighting on the rabbit shot is very nice.

Sometimes it's helpful to post one shot at a time when asking for a critique

[Andrew]

#1 Is an interesting place and I personally like the composition. A bit soft though.
#2 is nice and sharp. Well exposed.
#3 Looks like somebody moved. A faster shutter may have fixed that.
#4 The face is nice and sharp but something just doesn't look right to me. Sorry, can't put my finger on it.
#5 Too many strong colours fighting for attention. Very busy. Where's Waldo.

Here's another suggestion. Post single photos you are happy with but not totally. Ones that just need that little something extra to make it pop. You'll get more technically detailed and pertinent responses from yours peers on the site.

[Iguanasan]

First off, welcome to the forum! I hope you enjoy the community here.

As the others have said it's a little tricky to critique five images so I won't do that. I'll pick #2 as I think you can learn the most from that shot.

Since you've pretty much filled the frame with Mr. Squirrel I don't have much of an issue with composition. You didn't cut off any limbs or ears and you left him just enough breathing room to make for a nice image. He is in pretty good focus though it's hard to tell but I think the fur on his nose is a touch sharper than his eyes and when dealing with living creatures you pretty much always want the eyes to be tack sharp. Maybe a slightly larger depth of field would have helped keep his entire face in focus.

I would have liked to see you move a little to your left here. That piece of bread or potato chip behind him is over exposed and is creating a big distracting white spot. By moving to your left you may have been able to get the shot without having that in the frame as I think he would have turned to keep an eye on you. This would have also put the sun over your left shoulder which would have lit his face beautifully and created the ever desired catch lights in his eyes which are all but missing.

All that being said, this is a wonderful shot. He's a cute little fellow and your focus looks to be almost bang on. As a photographer we tend to go to extremes when analyzing.

[Marko]

Hi Meagan - welcome again!
Some good critiques here. Lighting in some of these shots is quite harsh.
My fave of the set is the bunny. I like the interesting light and good eye sharpness.

[meganwebb]

Thanks everybody, its good to know some of the things that i am doing wrong. also these are edited so like the chipmunk is cropped so some of these things can be fixed easily, another thing is that i prefer to take all natural photographs and adjust the settings when i get home . i would rather have the photo natural and toy with black and whites and exposures at a latter time that way i do not loose out on the oppourtunity, thoughts ?

[Mad Aussie]

No time to critique today but just wanted to say I love the squirrel shot for the closeness and full cheeks, and also the backlighting in the bunny shot.

[asnow]

You say "i would rather have the photo natural and toy with black and whites and exposures at a latter time that way i do not loose out on the oppourtunity"

One rule of thumb is "Get it right in the camera". Do not alway count on fixing it in post.

[Iguanasan]

"i would rather have the photo natural and toy with black and whites and exposures at a latter time that way i do not loose out on the oppourtunity, thoughts ?"

I understand what you mean and while I agree with asnow - get it right in camera is the best solution - sometimes you want to capture the moment and worry about some of those technical details later. The best solution is to shoot, shoot, shoot and then shoot some more. Then you're not really thinking about the technical details when capturing an image - it just comes naturally. Then you can follow asnow's advice. Get it right in camera.