A Friendly water Dragon

[HAZZA]

Hi all, came across this Water Dragon yesterday, i kept getting closer and closer as you can see by pic progression - he didnt move at all but i was anticipating he would - No PP or cropping yet (except image 1 cropped) C@C and suggestions for PP welcome( i know i need to work on my exposure compensation, didnt use for these pics),footnote, i was actually laying on ground for last 3
Image 1, tv1/100,av11,iso 640,, 51mm focal length

image 2,tv1/100,av 6.3,iso 500,53mm

image 3,1/50,5.6,iso160,37mm

image 4,1/60,5.6,iso 200,37mm

image 5,1/60,4.5,iso 100,37mm

[Geoff F]

The only thing you can realistically do with exposure compensation in situations like this is to check that the potential hotspots on the gravel, and in the background, aren't excessively over exposed then try to recover everything else during editing.

No real problems with these shots though. And the focus is excellent.

To me, it looks as though #3 and #4 could do with a little bit of counter clockwise rotation; but you are already rather tight on framing so this might not be possible.

As an alternative, I would probably try cropping tighter at the top and right side so the background isn't so distracting.

[HAZZA]

The only thing you can realistically do with exposure compensation in situations like this is to check that the potential hotspots on the gravel, and in the background, aren't excessively over exposed then try to recover everything else during editing.

No real problems with these shots though. And the focus is excellent.

To me, it looks as though #3 and #4 could do with a little bit of counter clockwise rotation; but you are already rather tight on framing so this might not be possible.

As an alternative, I would probably try cropping tighter at the top and right side so the background isn't so distracting.

Thanks Geoff - will try your suggestions - given that he was that tame I could have possibly got some more angles to eliminate some of the background

[Donald]

I think Geoff has covered all the key points. I'd just add my congratulations on getting the pictures. As Geoff said, you've nailed the focusing.

[HAZZA]

Thanks Donald, working hard to continue to improve on my focusing, so im pleased with your comments

[HAZZA]

thought i would post a pic of another one I came across the next day in a National Park, so you can get an idea of the size these can get too, not quite as good a shot but this guy wasnt a poser and was moving much more

[Geoff F]

Looks better at full screen size. The problem with this shot is that the subject is much the same colour as the background and having bright water in the scene has caused exposure problems.

However, I suspect that a little bit more can be squeezed from this scene by selectively changing the brightness and sharpness so they just apply to your 'model' and not the background.