a few from blackpool zoo

[paulm]

I've been away recently with work and upon returning decided to take my daughter to blackpool zoo as a treat. There were loads more but realised half way round (with a very impatient 3 year old) that i was shooting at too slow a speed so half my shots were not very good. I thought these were probably the best of the bunch. Let me know what you think please
C&C welcome

[Geoff F]

For me, Paul, you appear to have a slight focusing problem with #1 and #3 where the foreground looks sharper than the faces of the intended main subjects. A common problem with auto focus.

I can't see any shooting information so the slow shutter speed might have been a considerable part of the cause.

#2 and 4 are decidedly sharper.

Personally, I would crop #4 a little differently and lose some of the out of focus area on the right. Possibly end up with something around 5 x 4 ratio.

And possibly try cropping fractionally from the top and left of the last one.

[Mark von Kanel]

Your right, you were shooting to slow but hey ho lesson learned! its a pitty because otherwise the monkey shots would have worked, the one of the duck is ok but doesnt work for me because you are looking down on it, these shots work better at eye level, never easy to achieve with a duck!

The last one does nothing for me at all composition wise and im struggling to like it at all. sorry

[paulm]

Thanks for the comments guys. The shutter speeds are quite high on the pics taken I just think it may have been the auto focus you mentioned or my poor skills. I learnt a few bits from the day which was good and the main thing. The more I look at the last one I also struggle to keep my attention on it. Next time I go I'll try to manual focus and see if I can get some better shots and see if I can get a better composition on other animals

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi paul im not able to read the exif data on the photo what did you use and what were your settings?

[paulm]

I lost the exit when editing from raw and so on. I was using a 75-300mm lens at about 250mm. It was aperture 4-5.6 and ISO 400 to get high shutter speeds. Shot at between 1/800 to 1/2000. All on AV mode. Hope these details help. All the shots were done on these settings roughly

[Mark von Kanel]

At those speeds, i doubt shutter speed is the problem, id look more towards af probs. but im wondering why the aperture isnt helping the depth of field and hense focus, your not shooting a full frame are you?

[paulm]

i use a canon 500d. i think its a cropped sensor from what i remember. probably wrong as usual with that sort of thing though. they were all taken handheld and using auto focus so i wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the problem. i will try manual focus next time and see how it goes unless you have any other tips. they were taken on low quality lenses also.

[Mark von Kanel]

even budget lenses will get you sharper images than some of those and the one of the duck is sharp so i dont think its the lens quality. the canon 500d is a crop sensor. i would have thought that the af would be ok as well ,though i dont shoot canon so im not certain. it could be something to do with your focus points, maybe you didnt have the right one selected, but again we need a canon user to guide you.

[paulm]

i didnt even think about the focus points i was trying to occupy my daughter and take photos at the same time i never thought about them when setting up the camera. i should take a touch more time setting up next time

[MajaMolly]

It's great when you have a good time and learn! Looks like a fun day.

[Mark von Kanel]

Dont be so hard on yourself Paul! ive quickly learned that if i want to improve my photography, i need to do photography, without distractions!
i am unfortunately not blessed with children but we do have 2 dogs that are our surrogates i am often torn between taking both the dogs and the camera or just the camera! dogs and camera can work but i need the long suffering wife there as well, that way she can look after the kids and i just look after the camera!

take your time, get to know your camera and you will quickly improve.