BFCIV

Nikon D600
Sigma 70-300mm @195mm
Distance 1.3m
FOV ~4"
f/11
1/400s
ISO-5600

(Download)

wthomson Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Excellent shot--didn't notice the newborn at first. Probably need more coffee.

BFCIV

Thank you, I was trying to get a good shot of the baby lizard, and was only dreaming that he would end up with the flowers in the frame. This exceeded my hopes, as I was able to reasonably frame it and he ended up craning his neck to the left offering a unique balance.

NikonGal Loc: Central Oregon

Really like how the shape of some flowers replicate the shape of the lizard. Nicely done. Bev

BFCIV

As I was looking through the shots I took this one stood out and at first I did not know why. But it seems the lizards pose here somehow balances the shot.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

The role of the lizard in the composition of this image is amazing. It puts the final nail in the coffin of “balance is all about mass”!!!!

Dave

BFCIV

Dave,

It was almost like the lizard led me to the shot. I saw the baby lizard and went and grabbed my camera hoping to find an interesting composition, he was small enough to make that likely. I knew where the flowers were and was hoping to get them both in the frame, 30 minutes later he ended up here. I was excited and it was hot but in the end I was very happy to end up with this!

BFCIV

Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Just going by the title, I was kinda rolling my eyes because the newborn with flowers is really common in portrait work. So happy to see that this wasn't the case here! . I have a few questions for you though... First, why an ISO of 5600? I noted you shot this at F11 at 1/400th of a second at 195mm (I think). The background seems to have a bit of pattern to it. Was this a house or building behind the critter and flower? To me, it seems that the high ISO was unnecessary and allowed two things to happen- added noise in the image and an overall overexposure within the image itself. If you would lower the ISO to say 400 and shoot at say 1/200th of a sec. at F5.6 or maybe even 8, you would also blow out the detail in the background because you're limiting your depth of field at the distance you were shooting from, it would be just enough for the flowers and Lizard while again eliminating what appears to me to be background texture.

In post processing, you could eliminate the blown out highlights using either the RAW converter (if Shot in RAW) or by using the Camera RAW filter in the "FILTERS" in Photoshop (Generally, the 5th item listed under the "filters" drop down menu). You would do this by adjusting the exposure and then making an adjustment to "Whites" and "Highlights" separately from that, which you can do in this filter. By doing this, you will add a significant amount of detail to the flowers and the little guy hanging onto them while controlling the background more exactly. I would also punch up the "Vibrance" as well. You should use this rather than the "Saturate" because "Saturate" will be used on ALL colors within the scene, needed or not while "Vibrance" will only adjust colors that are not fully saturated. You can also do your sharpening, noise reduction and a few other cool things with this filter/converter. Moreso if you shoot RAW to begin with.

Hope this helps you take a really well shot and composed scene to that next level. I looked at this and wished I had shot it. If you have questions, please ask. Happy to help.

BFCIV

Thanks for the detailed feedback. There are reasons for some of the choices and others are due to inexperience. I in general shake like a leaf so try never to violate the shutter speed rule of thumb(1/focal length*crop factor seconds) as I otherwise ruin too many shots, that combined with almost always using this lens fully extended(300mm) had me at 1/400s. I struggle with f stops and wanted to be sure to get all the flower and lizard in focus. I use auto ISO because I find a lot of variance in lighting and am not good at setting up every click. So you find the garage door somewhat distracting as a background.

I am glad you like the shot overall.

BFCIV