Getting the eye catching on the right part of the picture.

[fgoldbach]

Hi, I am new here, and have spent some time reading other threads and reading tutorials, and now dare to start a thread myself. This picture was taken with my Nikon D5100 with a shutter speed of 1/100 and F/18 focal length 160mm with a zoom lens 55 to 200mm. A saw 3 grazing deers and started to sneak in on those. I did not go far before they spotted me and start to run away, so I have to shoot and managed to get two of those. I ended up with a picture of some beautiful trees however, my main topic is very tiny in the picture, no eye catcher. I have tried to blur the trees, but then I found there was nearly nothing in the picture. Cropping the picture to only contain the deers, then it does not look natural anymore. Do you have some suggestions on how to highlight the deer however, still look natural? Other critics and suggestions is also very welcome.
Today I am better off, I now have a 120 to 400mm lens. I have also learned that a shutter speed of 1/100 sec is a bit too slow for telephoto. I do not know why I only used 160mm of the 200 available, that was not on purpose.

[Momo]

Hi Finn, I would love to see the photo... nothing coming through yet.

This thread may help you in posting images.

Also, just to clarify, are you shooting a 200 or 400mm lens? As a general rule of thumb, you want to avoid shooting at a shutter speed less than the reciprocal of your focal length. And, since you and I are both using the same DX camera, that means multiplying the focal length by 1.5. So, shooting 200mm means keep your shutter speed at no less than 1/300th. On a full frame camera, that would be 1/200th second.

[fgoldbach]

I uploaded the picture with Tiny however it looks like I need to do more. I need to figure out how I can add the photo.

[fgoldbach]

Thank you Darren, I cannot find manage attachment. Is it only available when I start a thread? What a bad start. I will delete the thread and start over again. When I went into the delete function the "manage thread" was available.

[Kris V]

Thank you Darren, I cannot find manage attachment. Is it only available when I start a thread? What a bad start.

Once the picture is uploaded in TinyPics, copy the URL and paste it in your message. Your photo will show once you post the message.
HTH

[fgoldbach]

I was shooting with a 55 to 200mm zoom lens, at the time I took the photo, I did not have the 120 to 400mm lens.

[Momo]

Finn, I'm going to give you my honest opinion. If it were me, I would chalk this one up to a missed opportunity and go back out there and try it again. But, that's just me. Are you running Photoshop or a similar program? The image could benefit from a bit more contrast. I had a look at the levels and you could easily pull the black and white points in to give more contrast. As far as cropping goes, honestly, I'd probably leave it as is. Or, you could try something like this...



Bring the lower third down to meet the grass horizon and place the deer on the left more closer to a vertical third. I also tweaked the contrast on this cropped image. Up to you...

[fgoldbach]

Thank you Darren, yes I prefer honest reply. I you are right wild life photographing do give a large number of missed opportunities. However, lower cropping to the lower part do bring more attention to the deer.
Thank you for an honest feedback.

[fgoldbach]

I have now modified the picture based on your recommendation, thanks again.