One wildlife shot

[castrol]

First post in the critique forum. I consider myself pretty brave, since I only
have like... 5 posts at this point.

Hammer it out. Help me get better.

 

[Rob]

Welcome to critique!

That's a very good picture to start with! He (?) has a pretty impressive set of horns!

It's always nice to include your shot information if possible. At a more than slightly informed guess, here it is:

Nikon D70, 1/80", f5.6, 300mm, AWB, Manual mode, ISO 200, All modes normal. Image manipulated in ACDSee.

You've done really well to get the DOF as good as it is here - the background is just blurred enough to concentrate the eye to the perfectly thirded subject.

If I were to comment in terms of improvement, it would only really be in the image manipulation - I think the image could do with a bit of a sat boost and a touch of USM to make the fur pop a little.

Rob

 

[castrol]

Yeah, I am not a very good image manipulator as of yet...
Basically I used ACDSee to add the border and resize. I forget you can do all
kind of fancy things with it. Let me play with a bit and see if I can't figure out
what you are saying.

Of course, everyone else in the free world uses Photoshop.

 

[castrol]

How about this... I forgot to ask what USM was...

Too much?

 

[Rob]

A bit too much I think?! The deer is good, but the green is a bit OTT.

You want me to show you what I mean in PS?

(go and get a copy of PS!)

Rob

 

[castrol]

A bit too much I think?! The deer is good, but the green is a bit OTT.

You want me to show you what I mean in PS?

(go and get a copy of PS!)

Rob

Absolutely. Not only that... teach me how you found all of that information in
the photo...as far as all of the EXIF on it. I can't seem to figure that out.

 

[Rob]

USM, Unsharp Mask is a process of sharpening images:
[SIZE=-1]
Unsharp mask is an image-processing technique used to sharpen an image and enhance detail. True unsharp masking is done by subtracting a blurred version of an image from the original. Unsharp mask routines in software simulate this effect and make it easier to have control over the final image.[/SIZE]

That was from a quick google.

I've done a levels, curves, contrast adjustment, but I've slightly over done it, so you can see the effect more clearly. Using PS, if it was a final image, I'd be more subtle. (Edit: I have done it again, cos I made things even worse!)

Download Opanda EXIF viewer: http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/download.htm and it allows you to see the EXIF data stored in an image.

Hope this helps!

Rob

 

[castrol]

Levels, curves, contrast adjustment. Wow. Intimidating. Looks great though.

That EXIF program is rocking. Very nice. Thanks for that.

 

[JTHphoto]

first of all, great shot!

1. The crop/comp seems a little tight on the right for my taste... he seems crowded by the border.

2. I might be tempted to run the image through neatimage (or similar) to clean up some of the bg noise. If you had PS you could layer it so you could lose some noise in the bg, while retaining the added USM detail in the fur.

After Rob's suggestions those are the only things I would try out, otherwise you've got a great capture here...
perfect broadside shot, with him looking right down the barrel...


:mrgreen:

 

[Jeff Canes]

---1. The crop/comp seems a little tight on the right for my taste... he seems crowded by the border. ---

i also agree with this

 

[JohnMF]

I would have prefared the deer to be slightly lower down in the picture, at the moment i think his horns a little too close to the top of the frame. but that is all