Grizzly In The Rain

Nice mood to this Don. I would have liked to at least SEE the horizontal to compare the 2, but for me it works like this.
I would tone down the bright tones through a luminosity mask, and perhaps consider taking some off the top to lose the dark band in the BG?

Very nice. I would try to bring out a bit more detail on the bear's right eye. Otherwise spectacular.

Very handsome subject Don, love the flat top hairdo. He really gave you a nice pose here. I think that the rain is a nice mood enhancing feature. I feel that some negative exposure compensation might have been required for this scene, there are some bright areas and the fur looks a bit light. I do understand the need to see the eyes amidst the dark fur however, but this could probably best be handled with some local exposure adjustment of just those areas. Decreasing the required exposure would also have the benefit of permitting a lower iso, and the obvious benefits of tone and contrast associated with that. If the exposure was reduced I suspect that the background would look even better, so at that point might just crop the very bright reflections at the bottom. As you suggested, a horizontal format would not look out of place either, gulls or not.

Really well done Don! I think this works perfectly as a vertical crop although as Morkel said; I would take a bit off the top and if you have room in the original image maybe leave a bit more in front. The rain drops really make this one for me as it really shows the bear in its regular environment. Your DOF is just perfect to me, well done!

Hello Don

Sweet Pose & Capture. A moment to Remember..For Sure!:)

The capture of the RainDrops makes this Image for me. I am familiar with the Very Heavy rain and this does feature that.
The exposure seems off a small amount with very bright reflective wet fur on his shoulder. If you could tone that down some it would give a better rendition. In your Limited Resolution presentation here, the Image seems soft , but probably looks Fine on your Monitor with a Higher Res.?

thanks for Sharing !

Bill

Hi Don,

Nice shot! I like the almost "longing" (for what I don't know) expression on the bear's face and love the ring of hair that ends in the little "beatnik" beard below its chin.

You ask about the crop. I see no reason in this shot to go horizontal. Although part of the scene, out-of-focus white gulls in the background do distract the viewer's attention (different story if they are close to the bear and in-focus, but that's not the case here).

Two further comments: While I think going vertical is the way to go here, my preference would have been to position the bear higher in the frame, leaving more room for the reflection (and, as others have pointed out, the darker band at the top of the image doesn't really add to the image). Not sure if you have room in the original capture to crop this way - so perhaps just food for thought for the NEXT time you encounter a grizzly in water!

And, I think the image would be stronger if you selectively reduced the exposure on the water - think you'd find the subject would pop a lot more. Just a thought...

Cheers...

Brad

Thank you all for the valuable suggestions which I have taken to heart. My final version is much improved by them.

Don

These water shots of the grizzlies in BC are really striking. What a great expression you captured here.