Bonding with Nature

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 11, 201172 views3 comments

Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, Aperture Priority @ f/5.6 (1/60 sec), -1 EV, ISO 400, Tripod, JPEG from RAW, Copped about 20% FROM Full Frame; Leaving the 80% You See Here

Another species of Lemur I was lucky enough to come across in Southern Madagascar was this Red-Fronted Brown Lemur, although unfortunately (for me) they tend to prefer hanging out mostly in very shady parts of the forest and I don't like to use flash, so I only managed to capture a few images of this delightful animal that I felt were good enough to keep, this of course is one of those!

No doubt at least one of you will pick up on the fact that I underexposed this shot by one full stop and will ask yourselves, “Why?”.

The answer is: I did so in order to gain a faster shutter speed. I know, I know, many experienced photographers will thoroughly disapprove of this method, but my experience with the 7D's performance on ISO settings higher than 400 is that if there's any noise that's going to be introduced there appears to be slightly less (to my eye!) by underexposing an image than there is by upping the ISO.

I'm sure there will be some that disagree with this, and I respect your opinion, all the same, for the situation I was in at the time and the result I managed to get with this frame, I'm pleased enough I went with what I felt was best.

Nevertheless, happy as always to read critique and alternative thoughts.

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 11, 2011 at 3:56 PM

Hi Ashley, good job of working with challenging light. Like the sharpness in the eyes and face. For me I would like to have seen more of the lemurs body in the shot. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on October 13, 2011 at 12:19 AM

Strong composition here Ashley and what a cool pose and eyes! Just a little bit tight top and bottom, but seeing you cropped this a bit you may have exactly that in the original. The bright patches in the BG are eye-catching, particularly the vertical strip next to the trunk. Toning these down may help. I find your observations about the ISO quite remarkable. I have heard similar observations from Nikon users, but with my Canon gear I feel noise levels are worse if I underexpose and correct it in post-processing then when I shoot at a higher ISO to get the exposure correct in camera.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on October 13, 2011 at 8:37 PM

Thanks for your comments and observations John and Vincent :^)

Main reason I cropped as tight as this was to clip out as many of the bright, white patches of light that were filtering through the leaves, though not much I could do about the lower RH corner or the thin strip in the upper right, at least not without cloning in from other areas.

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments