Fox - comin' at yer!

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) - Essex, UK
Canon 7D, 600/f4, Gitzo 3530LSV, Wimberley WH2.
Manual exposure mode f6.3; 1/1250, iso 400.
RAW image processed in Adobe Camera Raw; sharpened in Photoshop CS5; noise reduction using Noiseware Professional Imagenomic; Nik Color Efex Pro 4 - Detail Extractor filter; full frame.

I've used Capture One software for processing my raw files for a very long time, but in its most recent manifestation, the standard conversions for the cameras I own are way too "warm" in my opinion; they are certainly not faithful to the light conditions prevailing when the image was captured, so I've stopped using it.

The software trial that I've been playing with is Nik Color Efex Pro 4. I own an earlier verion of this software, but find very little use for it. The latest version has a new filter called Detail Extractor which I have used in this image. It adjusts the micro contrast in the similar way that the Photoshop Shadows/Highlight filter does. The DE filter has been used with a mask so that it's effect is only applied to the fox and not the surrounding grass or background. It has brought out more detail in the ears and exaggerated the out-of-focus detail on the fox's back. If used on the background parts of an image it introduces texture that isn't really there and exacerbates any noise present. As always, I guess there is no free lunch.