Salamander

Arthur, a well thought out photo, but a little dark on my monitor.Perhaps a selective brightening of the midtones?

Hi Arthur,

Like with "Toads" I can totally appreciate the technical precision and your attention to detail in putting this image together. And, I think you HAVE effectively shown both the animal and where it lives. And while some of my thoughts on this image parallel what I said on your previous post, I think the lighting transition from foreground to mid-ground and background works much better on this shot (and thus the image doesn't say "artificial lighting" to the degree the previous image did). I'm still a little torn on keeping the trees - and especially the sky - in the shot. I understand why it's there, yet the bright patch of sky visible in the top right corner still distracts me a little.

You've given yourself a tough project, but it's very interesting to view and think about. Thanks for sharing it with us...

Brad

Hey Arthur,
I like the different view of the salamander and the environs! I do think like Phil that it is a hair dark but I think just opening the moss area......will do the trick and keep the mood and look.

I like this a lot Arthur (much more I must admit than your toad image, which I checked out just now). The success has partly to do with the striking subject as well as the habitat and the diagonal line to create a stimulating composition. I do not mind the environment being a bit dark as it suits a dark forest atmosphere, but I think it will be critical in this project of yours to try and make your images look as if no artificial lighting was used. Here you are very close to achieving that look, but playing a bit more mid balancing out the exposure between foreground and mid-ground would perfect it IMO. I am looking forward to more images of this series.

PS: How is that Carl Zeiss lens on the 5D2, super sharp? Do you need an adapter ring and does AF still work?

The salamander stands out nicely from the rich green terrain. I agree with Brad about the bright spot. Could the background be brightened just slightly and still keep the salamander as the star?

Thanks a lot to all of you! I appreciate your comments and suggestions very much!

Vincent, when focused at infinity, as in landscape shots, this lens delivers images that look to me uniformly sharp. In that case the Zeiss is about as sharp as the TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L II which is the sharpest Canon lens at the moment. In close-up photos like this one only the middle area is perfectly sharp. However, it is normal for ultra wide lenses, as much as I know. Overall, the Zeiss 18mm is a top-quality lens in every aspect, even compared to any Canon L wide-angle lens. My previous landscape lens was EF 17-40 f/4 which is very popular and really good. The main reason to replace it with this Zeiss (that costs twice as much) was the much better resolution which is, of course, an advantage when it is used with a sensor that has so many megapixels.

Thanks for the added info about the lens Arthur. Just curious to know whether it still has AF functionality on your 5D2 and whether you need an adapter or not. Thanks again.

Hi Vincent! This lens is with a Canon mount and needs no adapter. However, as all Zeiss lenses, it is a manual-focus-only lens. It is not an issue with the subjects that are typically shot with this lens.