Posted: 8/29/2011 11:47:47 AM EDT
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Some of you probably saw my thread in GD about my trip to the zoo. Here's the link if you want to read it:
click here I have some questions about what went wrong there. First question: How do you combat a renegade fence between you and your subject? I know that if you get close enough to it, it will seem to disappear as you focus on a subject far beyond it. What if that's not an option? 
Second: How do you deal with shooting through glass that may be scratched, marked up, dirty, nasty, and otherwise unpleasant? What can be done to maximize your chances of getting a respectable shot? 
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Quoted:
First question: How do you combat a renegade fence between you and your subject? I know that if you get close enough to it, it will seem to disappear as you focus on a subject far beyond it. What if that's not an option? Second: How do you deal with shooting through glass that may be scratched, marked up, dirty, nasty, and otherwise unpleasant? What can be done to maximize your chances of getting a respectable shot? 1) Pick a zoo with more photography friendly enclosures if you can. 2) You got the right idea, use a low f stop to only put your subject in focus. Other than that, not a lot you can do. 3) Don't shoot straight on and don't use a flash. Hopefully, the other side of the glass will be well lit and your side will be darker. Once again, depth of field can be used to put the glass out of focus while your subject is in focus. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
First question: How do you combat a renegade fence between you and your subject? I know that if you get close enough to it, it will seem to disappear as you focus on a subject far beyond it. What if that's not an option? Second: How do you deal with shooting through glass that may be scratched, marked up, dirty, nasty, and otherwise unpleasant? What can be done to maximize your chances of getting a respectable shot? 1) Pick a zoo with more photography friendly enclosures if you can. 2) You got the right idea, use a low f stop to only put your subject in focus. Other than that, not a lot you can do. 3) Don't shoot straight on and don't use a flash. Hopefully, the other side of the glass will be well lit and your side will be darker. Once again, depth of field can be used to put the glass out of focus while your subject is in focus. Would you have taken the picture of that wolf any differently? He was either right up on the fence, or far enough away and behind enough shit where a shot was not an option. The only other angle was through glass so dirty I could barely see through it much less aim a camera or achieve focus. 
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Sometimes, there's just not much you can do. I know they are not always easy to come by, but a zoo that has better animal habitats, and is more photo friendly, is your best bet. I'm entirely on board with this assessment, however the thread is about making the best of a shitty situation. Any input on that? |
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Quoted:
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First question: How do you combat a renegade fence between you and your subject? I know that if you get close enough to it, it will seem to disappear as you focus on a subject far beyond it. What if that's not an option? Second: How do you deal with shooting through glass that may be scratched, marked up, dirty, nasty, and otherwise unpleasant? What can be done to maximize your chances of getting a respectable shot? 1) Pick a zoo with more photography friendly enclosures if you can. 2) You got the right idea, use a low f stop to only put your subject in focus. Other than that, not a lot you can do. 3) Don't shoot straight on and don't use a flash. Hopefully, the other side of the glass will be well lit and your side will be darker. Once again, depth of field can be used to put the glass out of focus while your subject is in focus. Would you have taken the picture of that wolf any differently? He was either right up on the fence, or far enough away and behind enough shit where a shot was not an option. I wouldn't have used a flash. You now have not only the wire from the cage, but now the shadows from the wires from the cage, twice a much visual clutter. I don't know about your camera, but if you have something like a Canon G series or a DSLR, you can control: focus shutter speed f stop ISO (what we used to call slow or fast film) flash if present. Learning what all these do and when to use to get an artistic shot or to fix a situation is what separates a photographer from a snapshot taker. Controlling depth of field by controlling f stop and controlling movement with shutter speed and ISO are your two best techniques for better pictures outside of the composition. It's easy to point to fixes for specific shots. What you have to do is step out a level and try to apply solutions to whatever comes up. |
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Get in the cage with them.
On a somewhat more serious note... move as close as you can possibly get to the fence, shoot wide open. This works best/better if the critter moves back.... but still helps compared to standing back. Look, realistically the only thing you can do besides bypassing the fence is to blur it out. For that reason, use a camera with the largest sensor you can afford coupled with the above suggestion. And use a wide angle prime at ridiculously large aperture setting. Depth of field isn't linear, it's relative... a fence that is 98% as far away as your subject is pretty much in focus... if you can get that fence to be 10% of the distance to your subject (focal plane), it will be much less noticeable due to blur. Don't shoot straight on thru glass. Have someone block light that is hitting the glass, or move yourself into a better position to avoid the reflection. Don't use a flash. For both problems, the best solution is to just find a better subject and/or location. |
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Just went through your pictures. Normally I find that dealing with natural light seems to work the best, alot of yours have lots of flash that not only shows up in the eyes but gets rid of any kind of contrast and makes the photos look pretty flat. The hardest part that I've come to face is dealing with reflections. An option that might help with that is using a CPL to cut those out. I always wait till people leave to try and get some of my shots at zoo's.
Now with cages I can't say much about them because I don't shoot alot of the cage animals. The biggest thing I look at are the main subject and whats around it, I find that it can create a mood that can show how sad some of these animals are at times. I love going to zoo's but there are alot of times where I feel bad for some of the animals. Here's a link to some of my zoo photos: Zoo Photos You can try the cage trick and see if it works, but I'd find a chain link fence or something to get some practice first. |
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Some zoos are pretty nice to photograph, and others just aren't. The Fort Worth zoo has some great photo ops, and I've gotten some pretty good results there. On the other hand, everyone says the Dallas zoo is terrible for photography, so I've never bothered with it.
It looks like the flash was too hot on all of your images. If you need a little fill flash (because of high contrast/harsh shadows), here are a couple things you might want to try (I'm a Nikon user). For outside fill flash, I unlike to use the TTLBL mode, and dial in about -2/3 flash compensation. This is a just starting point, and I will adjust it as necessary (I frequently check the histogram, and the blinking highlights). Over the years, I've found the Nikon flash to be a little too hot (for me) when using the TTLBL mode for fill. That's why I generally start out with some negative compensation. Or if you prefer, you can use the standard TTL mode, and dial in about -1 2/3 flash compensation for a starting point. If you need the flash for the main, or key light, the I would use the standard TTL mode, and start with zero (0) flash compensation, and again, adjust as necessary. But generally, I try to use all natural light at the zoo. This is largely to avoid any reflections from the animals eyes (similar to red eye in people). Back in the film days, I tried using a flash at the zoo, and ended up with a bunch of tiger pictures with very bright, spooky eye refections. AKA, a waste of film. Keep on shooting... |
| As mentioned flash can complicate things. I might go to manual focus for fence shots if I can't get close enough to get a focus point thru the gaps. For glass if you can get right up on it then I'd use (and do) a rubber lens hood pressed right up on the glass. Shoot as close to straight thru the glass as you can. The greater the angle the worse your contrast and distortion. If you've got one use a lens with very open f-stop f2.8 or preferrably faster. |