AA #2

Gallery: WildlifePosted February 13, 201492 views3 comments

Same place but a little later in the Antlers Anonymous (AA) meeting at the nature area. The two bucks in my previous post did some more pushing around with another buck in the background seeming to be waiting to take on the winner. So, one buck just walked a few feet away and the buck watching the affair walked over and the two bucks started into another pushing and shoving match. Eventually the darker, new arrival, seemed to pin the other one as shown here. Match over, and they got up and walked away. Good action here but the deer are not as well seen as they moved slightly downhill and they did not stand out as well from the BG. I also had to crop away about 35% off the left and bottom to get the other buck, who was standing about 10 ft away, out of the frame. I increased all the sliders a small to moderate amount except for exposure (which looked good) and a decrease in the highlights. Trying to get the deer to stand out from the BG more. I even played with the tone curves which is new to me. Bottom line is that this tweaking improved the image but I don't think it's there yet. Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with EF 70-200mm f/4L at 200m
1/250th at f/4.0 and ISO 500
tripod
Lightroom 5

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on February 13, 2014 at 12:39 PM

Peter, IMHO too much of the action can't be seen, if the image can handle it I would suggest a tighter crop and an increase in contrast. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on February 13, 2014 at 2:11 PM

Looks like you are having a fantastic time recently out there, Peter. (Just tried to catch up a bit looking as some of your previous shots.) While the one before this shows more of the deer, this has more drama both in the action and the light. As far as you processing question goes, I like what you did here, except that I think you can focus more attention on the bucks by darkening the bright foreground, and by cropping. Since the background trees are nice, but not distracting, I think I would keep them, but get rid of some of the stuff on the right side. I think this would make a nice square or vertical 4x5 comp.

P.S. Have you tried onOne Perfect Effects 8? It's a really handy program with some great tools that I think you could take advantage of with shots like this, such as their "dynamic contrast" tool. Best of all, you can get it FREE now ( thanks to a tip from Sandy Richards). Get it here: http://www.ononesoftware.com/landing/pe8offer/?utm_campaign=PEPE_FREE_Demo_20140122&utm_medium=email&utm_source=3&utm_content=button . (Make sure you look at a couple of their recorded training seminars to get the hang of it.)

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Brookhart on February 16, 2014 at 8:53 PM

I agree with John, tighter crop but not too tight. I bet that 60 D will handle a higher ISO without too much trouble. I think that would help you get a little faster shutter speed, which in turn would probably make a tighter crop hang together better. Nature always seems to put obstacles in the way. Nice action, just want to see it more up close and personal.

Registered on January 29, 2010, 10 Posts, 36 Comments