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Anonymous
So I took my son to the Philadelphia Zoo yesterday. Unfortunately it was a crappy day to try and take picts - Overcast and rainy most of the time we were there. I got a few that turned out only ok. It's amazing how hard it is to get a clear shot of anything when you have a 1" thick piece of glass between you and the animals... C&C?
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>> Anonymous
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>> Anonymous
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Camera-Specific Properties:Equipment MakeNIKON CORPORATIONCamera ModelNIKON D200Camera SoftwareVer.2.00Maximum Lens Aperturef/2.8Sensing MethodOne-Chip Color AreaColor Filter Array Pattern672Focal Length (35mm Equiv)105 mmImage-Specific Properties:Horizontal Resolution360 dpiVertical Resolution360 dpiImage Created2008:05:19 10:07:59Exposure Time1/10 secF-Numberf/2.8Exposure ProgramAperture PriorityISO Speed Rating640Lens Aperturef/2.8Exposure Bias0 EVMetering ModePatternLight SourceUnknownFlashNo FlashFocal Length70.00 mmRenderingNormalExposure ModeAutoWhite BalanceAutoScene Capture TypeStandardGain ControlLow Gain UpContrastHardSaturationHighSharpnessHardSubject Distance RangeUnknown
>> Anonymous
Since you're using a D200, you could probably stand to up the ISO quite a bit. My fiancee shoots with one, and we go to the zoo a lot - she uses 800+ most of the time without any significant noise.

Zoos can be notorious for having bad light. I always bring a monopod there - I don't like bringing a tripod as it impedes foot traffic.

It's hard to shoot through glass, but if you can, shoot at an angle. Or use a polarizer. This will cut the glare and possibly some light diffraction that will cause the photo to be soft.
>> Anonymous
I actually didn't think about the polarizer... I will definitely use that next time. I did try to shoot on an angle as much as I was able to. I had to borrow a zoom from a friend (70-210 sigma POS) because I didn't have anything that could get close enough in my limited arsenal. I guess it's cheap enough to buy a CP Filter (no not that CP!!) that would fit that lens.

I was afraid to bump the ISO too much because the only experience I've had with it is low light band shots at some local bars, and they come out pretty noisy. I'm kinda a noob to digital. I've mainly used a couple of old Canon AE-1s and the like. I'll try that next time.

Towards the end it was raining pretty hard so we decided to leave and we are going to go back another time. Thanks for the ideas.
>> Anonymous
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One more that I thought came out pretty good...

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>> WetShirt !n21TE7QU8U
>>184704
God with a shutter of 1/500 and ISO 800?
You lost so much detail...
>> Anonymous
>>184704
Yea I think you could have lowered the iso/shutter here. Seems oversaturated, too. I'm thinking the performace of these shots are attributed to the poor performance of that lens.
>> Anonymous
>>184714
>>184704
But a good capture, nonetheless.
>> Anonymous
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>>184706
Yeah... I wasn't thinking. They were starting to play around and I was more worried about getting the decent shot than checking the settings... my bad.

>>184714
Partly true as well.

>>184716
Thanks!

How about one more just for the cute factor...

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>> Jesus !1EQ.kCAg9c
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I'm driving up to philly on wednesday to help my sister move back south (just graduated from UPenn grad school). I might go visit the zoo. I went last time I was up there, got a few good shots.

And yeah, from my experiences the Philly zoo isn't very helpful when it comes to lighting/photography. Some of these shots have some potential if you get the chance to go back and reshoot.

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>> Anonymous
>>184728
HOLY FUCK I LOVE RED PANDAS
post moar plz
>> Anonymous
>>184735
>>Focal Length 7.90 mm

LOL WUT
>> Anonymous
>>184649
>> NatureGuy !se3A3TwzdY
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lolwut

overcast days>sunny days for zoo shooting
cuts down on wire and glass glare
gives you better tones
easier to photograph animals as you don't have to play the loose the highlight or shadow detail game, even more so on black and white animals
less people tend to come on such days

also to your lol 1" piece of glass whining it is cake to get a good shot through glass, picture related only partially because it was 2" glass.

>>184649
you blew out some of your whites while blocking out your blacks, pick one next time. Most DSLRs will blink your hot-spots red in image review if your have trouble seeing them. Composition is okay, maybe cut out the grass next time? Rather distracting as a green bar that isn't interacting with anything else in the image.

A lot of your images have a lot of hot spots and blocked blacks, pick where you want your detail man. Some of them would have been fairly decent otherwise.

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>> Anonymous
>>184704

Out of all the ones you posted this one is my favorite, but as previously stated try to get a better angle and avoid having so much clutter.
>> Mav !sSgYKb1m0E
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>>184752
Thanks for the input. Like I said earlier, I'm just getting back into photography after a LONG time and I have to re-learn a bunch of stuff. That and the fact that I'm going digital this time around makes it all the more fun.

>>184770
I really wish I could have but the way this zoo is arranged is particularly crappy. There were only three spots where you could look at the tigers and the other two were looking up their asses. So Naturally that's where all the people congregated to get pictures. I almost had to beat a girl to death to get my spot...

>>184742
Well... Heres two more for you then.

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>> Mav !sSgYKb1m0E
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Camera-Specific Properties:Equipment MakeNIKON CORPORATIONCamera ModelNIKON D200Camera SoftwareVer.2.00Maximum Lens Aperturef/4.0Sensing MethodOne-Chip Color AreaColor Filter Array Pattern672Focal Length (35mm Equiv)105 mmImage-Specific Properties:Horizontal Resolution360 dpiVertical Resolution360 dpiImage Created2008:05:19 14:06:06Exposure Time1/160 secF-Numberf/5.6Exposure ProgramAperture PriorityISO Speed Rating500Lens Aperturef/5.6Exposure Bias0 EVMetering ModePatternLight SourceUnknownFlashNo FlashFocal Length70.00 mmRenderingNormalExposure ModeAutoWhite BalanceAutoScene Capture TypeStandardGain ControlLow Gain UpContrastHardSaturationHighSharpnessHardSubject Distance RangeUnknown