Bighorn Portrait

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 21, 2014150 views8 comments

Hi Everyone! This is a bighorn ram my dad and sister and I got to photograph in Waterton Lakes National Park. He was hanging out in a steep valley and kept looking up into the trees constantly like he thought something was up there! So I got lots of chances for good pictures.

I like this picture because of the cool look he is giving and how it shows off the spread in his horns.

Thanks for looking!

Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4 IF-ED
ISO 100
1/2000sec @ f/4.5
-0.7EV compensation to control highlights and because of dark background

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Dad's Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7 with minor adjustments to exposure, highlights and curves
Minor tweaks in Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2 with additional adjustments in PS 5
Cropped to 90% of full frame

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on July 21, 2014 at 7:37 AM

Wow Josiah! This is really nice. Great view of the horns like you said. The eyes are great also. I think this image would be even better with just a bit more processing work. I would pull down the brightness on the right side of the image and try to pull a few more details from the shadows on the left. Nothing major, just some subtle changes. Well done.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Leggett on July 21, 2014 at 2:56 PM

Great pose and nice comp, Josiah.

Registered on July 21, 2004, 706 Posts, 3233 Comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on July 21, 2014 at 6:28 PM

Josiah,

I hope you don't mind that I took a shot at a couple of minor tweaks. See what you think. They are pretty subtle.

Jerry

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Clinch on July 21, 2014 at 7:22 PM

Excellent work, super sharp, and I really like how his nostrils are flared wide open. I think Jerry's minor tweaks work well. Our trip to Waterton last month was a rainy washout, but K-Country was awesome. You guys in Alberta have some excellent places to get out and enjoy.

Registered on January 5, 2013, 37 Posts, 261 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Cross on July 22, 2014 at 12:44 AM

This is really nice Josiah. If you were much closer you would have had too much lens. He certainly is one handsome guy. Judging by the size of his horns, I bet he wins most of the battles with other rams. You got a nice pose from him and double eye contact. Well composed and exposure looks real good as well. A little tweaking down of the bright side of the body might be good but that's about all I can think of. Nicely done.

Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on July 22, 2014 at 11:05 AM

Hey Josiah,

I like the pose you captured here...feels nice and dynamic and - as you suggested - it really shows the horns well. I actually prefer the original processing over the re-worked version (sorry Jerry!) - to me the re-worked one looks artificial in that shadows DO happen and the brightness of the right side of the face (left side of frame) is inconsistent with the dark shadow of the left horn (in other words, the face looks like it's been flash-filled now, with too much fill!). I suspect if we saw the original file that there's already been significant opening up of the shadows on the face...and it's real easy to push shadow details extraction too far...

Overall really well done!

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Josiah Launstein on July 22, 2014 at 8:51 PM

Thanks for all the nice comments! Thank you Jerry for suggesting ways to make my picture better. That was really nice of you to take the time to show me what you were thinking!

Thank you, Brad, for commenting too. My dad did do a lot of work to help with the shadows and bright side of the ram. I don't process my own pictures yet (I'm still only 9!) but I do sit with him when he does and we make all the decisions together.

I do have lots more of this ram and several others from the spring so I'll be posting lots of bighorn pictures this summer!

Thanks again!

Registered on January 26, 2013, 52 Posts, 126 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 22, 2014 at 10:28 PM

I really like the comp here Josiah. The tilted head gives this a feel of the ram being inquisitive and the shadows add just enough drama to make ti interesting. Great placement in the frame. I also prefer the initial post. Nice work!

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments