Little monkey

[merlin1027]

This is a shot of a monkey I took during my last trip to the local zoo. Tip and comments are welcome. F4.8 1/30 120mm ISO 2200. Nikon D5100 55-200mm lense.

[gregj1763]

Hi Scott, It's a good subject to photograph, perhaps a better angle that didn't have the fern in front of the monkey might have helped.
Your camera has focused on the fern, not the monkey. Did you take the shot in auto mode?
Cheers, Greg

[merlin1027]

Yeah I took this one in auto mode. quick little bugger.

[gregj1763]

What camera are you using Scott. If you are using a DSLR or anything that allows some more manual settings I would suggest trying it in shutter priority mode next time and have it 1/500s or more if you have available light.
Also I usually have my camera set to spot metering that way you have more control on what you want as the focal point.
Cheers, Greg

[Armand]

His equipment and settings are in his first post.

[Armand]

My comment Scott is that you should always aim to have your main subject in focus (except in some very special circumstances, where you can leave it fade in bokeh). It's much better to have a lot of noise and have the object in focus, than to have low or no noise, but have it blury. I suspect that you shot in dark conditions, so what I would have done is to boost the iso to 3200, 6400 or even if needed 12500 to achieve the needed speed to make the monkey sharp. It would also help with it's movements.

[gregj1763]

Sorry Scott, don't know how I missed your camera and settings in your first post. Old age setting in I think
Armand is correct about raising the iso. Better to get a slightly noisy image than an out of focus subject, 1/30 shutter speed would be probably a bit slow to get a sharp image in this situation.