Hi again, everyone! I'm back with another of the fox kits my family and I had the opportunity to spend time with this spring and early summer. This kit is from the younger family we discovered and he was one of the most cooperative young foxes I've personally photographed. In fact, he was starting to get a little too comfortable with Josiah and I and was making his way over to investigate us up close and personal so I had to shoo him away, and on the way back toward his den something caught his eye and he gave us this wonderful pose.
After initially processing this with the standard 3:2 aspect ratio, I liked it more and more when I cropped in a bit on my phone to more of a pano ratio, so I eventually went back and changed it to this...it removes some OOF trees in the background that, while not terribly distracting, still introduced additional elements that didn't contribute to the image IMO. I know this results in him being a little higher in the frame than what I had composed and what might be considered ideal, but I think it works...feel free to tell me otherwise!
As winter approaches for some of us, I thought it would be nice for a reminder of the warm sunny days and new life coming next spring.
Please view the LARGER version if you have time, and I welcome your comments and suggestions!
Nikon D600
Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4 IF-ED
ISO 640
1/800sec @ f/4.5
-0.3EV
monopod mounted
Processing Notes:
Converted from RAW using Phase One Capture One Pro 7 with adjustments to color balance and levels
Minor adjustments to tone and contrast using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2 with selective adjustments in PS5
Cropped to app. 75% original width
Comments
9 commentsIn the snow they are certainly very picturesque.
TFS
Steve
Very high cute factor along with nice light, nice colour, and a mostly distraction-free environment (coupled with a sweet DoF) - what's not to like? And the head turn, along with the intense stare of the kit, are icing on the cake. Nicely done!
I personally don't have any problem with how high the subject is in the frame - the added foreground (relative to background) gives the image a little depth, which for me is a good thing. I personally don't think a pano-crop is aesthetically necessary here, but it sounds like you went with it to solve a problem (those background trees you mention). Might be worth posting a 3:2 for comparison to see how folks react to it (and how distracting the background is perceived). Just a thought...
You know that in many (most) situations I'm not a fan of multiple distinct focus bands contained within an image (OOF foreground, in-focus band of focus that stretches across the frame, and OOF background), but what you've captured here is a textbook example of how multiple OOF zones CAN work in an image. For me there are two key things in this shot that make this work: the fact that the foreground and background are homogeneous (wrt content - grass only) and, with the exception of a few grass strands, there is no distinct edge-to-edge in-focus band (i.e., the OOF zone totally envelopes the subject).
Cheers...
Brad
Max
A Beauty