Black Bear with Repost

Nice head on pose with good light on the face. You could have gotten away with shooting at f5.6. There is something odd about the background. Not sure if its the sensor, lens or processing.

Bib bear. I like the downward face and eyes up pose. The FG grass and BG look over sharpened and too bright.

HI Richard,

I like the look and pose of the bear - looks like it means business! I agree with Ed that the background and foreground could be darkened somewhat (and that at least the foreground grass is a little over-sharpened). The background does have an odd look to it - did you soften it a little in post-processing (I have no problem with that at all...just trying to suss out where the look came from)?

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

I love that head pose too Richard, with that clear eye peering at you and that bent snout. I agree on the observations about FG and BG and wonder whether perhaps the BG effect is due to heat waves, although that does not seem very likely if you were close to Alaska... The exposure on the subject is well handled and the fur shows good detail. Thanks for sharing.

Nice bear Richard!

I went back into RAW and worked on this a little more and then did some selective levels and color work on the background. I also did some selective sharping on the bear. The background issue that has been mentioned is there in RAW. It appears to me that there was a breeze blowing that is causing a blur. All C&C welcome as I am trying to improve my technique and vision for my images.

Nice looking bear. I like the look of the bear in the original post and the look of the trees and grasses of the repost.

I like the expression and the open mouth. Agree with the last comment on liking the first bear and the second grass.

Peter

A fine image with a great subject, very big black bear! The bear looks just a tad soft on my monitor, not sure why as you had enough ss and good dof. Prefer the original although the highlights looks like they could be adjusted downwards a bit.

I, too, prefer the original posted version for the better highlight detail in the bears coat. If you darken the background, make it selective to not apply the same to the bear. I like the low, face-on perspective.