Alert Blacktail (C&C welcome)

[play18now]

Found this doe just off the trail on a hike last weekend. She just stood there chomping away, letting me take pictures. This one is my favorite, however I think it looks just a little bland and the colors aren't as deep as I would like. Opinions?

 

[bc_steve]

that's a nice looking deer!

I would crop a bit away from the right side and bottom so that the deer is a little bigger and it would make the composition more interesting if the deer wasn't in the centre of the frame.

 

[bc_steve]

I cropped it and slightly adjusted Levels.

 

[play18now]

bc_steve, do you mind walking me through what you did there?

 

[Heitz]

Looks like a slight mid-tone adjustment.

 

[bc_steve]

Sure. I used Photoshop CS6, but Levels is available in earlier versions as well.

There are a couple of ways to get to it: Ctrl-L, in the menu up top go to Image > Adjustment < Levels, or in the newer version of PS it's over on the right side, its icon looks like a bar graph.



I moved the right slider mostly to brighten up the image a little bit. Considering the light, I thought the deer should look a little bit brighter. I moved the one on the left by 1 to increase the contrast a tiny bit.

It's not a bad idea to move all three around a little bit to see what it does. I often do that a little bit and then settle on what I like.

That's all I did + cropping

 

[play18now]

Thanks! I'm currently experimenting with Lightroom (I'm still on the free trial, havent quite decided to buy it yet) and I worked with some of the contrast levels and got a product that I liked a lot more. Thanks for the input.