Sentinel

[Ken Watkins]

Some of you may recall that I have previously posted a few Bushbuck images and at the time indicated that it was rare to find them in the open. You can imagine my surprise when we saw at least three (one female) stood on top of termite mounds pretending to be Topis.

This was the nearest we got hence the not overwhelming IQ, taken in Lake Mvuru National Park, Uganda , late in the evening in dull light (by African standards) 24th June 2012

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 hand-held

F5, ISO 800, 1/250

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Ken

I like this. I don´t think IQ looks so bad. Pretty good in my eyes. Very nice posé and as I understand a somewhat rare place to find them. Again like that there is habitat. Clean portraits are getting much attention (and I´m about to post one in a minute..), but I think habitat should get more credit. I get a little flat impression in this image, anyone agrees?

TFS, Gregor

[Steve Canuel]

Nice shot Ken. IQ looks fine to me, cool and soft as I imagine approaching evening would be. Like the subject's perch in front of the lush BG.

[Andreas Liedmann]

HI Ken,
sweet shot of this buck.Like the isolated position on the mount.IQ looks not too bad.
I would reduce the blue cast , in the horns and the foliage in the BG and the mount itself.
Compostion works here.

Cheers Andreas

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks everybody, whilst we all like to get clean studio portraits now and again, I think the emphasis placed on this is misplaced.

My monitor shows no cast but who knows, what pixel peeping can lead to.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Dear Ken, call it pixel peeping or what ever you like . Take the image into PS and check with the Eyedropper tool if you do not trust your monitor or your eyes. And you will see in LAB color space values in the horns of A -channel 2 and B - channel -12 which means blue cast in the horns.

To be correct , i have never seen a buck with blue horns , have you ? But it is for sure up to you , to judge if it is important or not. I gave only a tip, what i think is not color correct. I do not want to say , i am right.

Cheers Andreas

[Ken Watkins]

Andreas,

We clearly have different colour sensitive eyes, the horns are grey too me.

This overly technical judgement was certainly not supposed to be the basis of this forum when it was set up, but that's progress for you.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Ken,
you must be happy with the colors in your i age not me.I repeat it is not a big deal.
So we should leave the colors alone, i will wait for the next color comment by you.
Let`s see.

Cheers Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Ken, I share your sentiment about the focus on tight portraits in general on all photographic platforms. As you know I love showing the environment when it can be done in a way that adds to the shot.
I like the pose on the mound here with the inclusion of the forest. :cheers:



This overly technical judgement was certainly not supposed to be the basis of this forum when it was set up, but that's progress for you.

You will be hard pressed to find anyone on this forum who will think of commenting on an apparent colour cast as "overly technical". The point of this forum was actually to provide a platform where critiques will be more serious (and taken more seriously by those critiqued) than all the other places (and there are plenty) that just end up forming a "well done" club. If this is your feeling I'm not sure what you make of the type of 'technical' critique given in the Avian gallery. :Whoa!:

This one has a definite blue/cyan colour cast with some green thrown in for good measure. Nothing wrong with my young eyes. :bg3:

In this repost I adjust in "Color Balance" - very slight as that's all that was needed - 1 point away from cyan to red, 2 points away from green to magenta, 2 points away from blue to yellow - for all tonal categories (shadows, midtones, highlights)...

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

That is not what I remember being told by Art.

Your repost has just disappeared, now it is back again.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Morkel,

That is not what I remember being told by Art.

Your repost has just disappeared, now it is back again.

I will ask him about that.
Oh - it's also to have fun. I'm having fun. :bg3:

More importantly - what do you think about the repost...?

[Robert Amoruso]

Morkel,

That is not what I remember being told by Art.

Your repost has just disappeared, now it is back again.

Ken,

BPN is about serious critiquing of nature-based images in an effort to help photographers to improve both field technique and post-processing skills, thus your comment that this is not the purpose of BPN is incorrect. BPN Critique forums are not about "great shot" comments. There are many other outlets for that type of posting.

There is a blue color cast. If you don't see it, that is because you monitor is not color profiled correctly or you are perhaps color-insensitive to it.

[Ken Watkins]

Robert,

Sorry it seems that my comment has been misunderstood it was meant to be limited to "pixel peeping", but then again I might have misquoted the source, it was an awful long time ago.

I agree that the critiques are generally more technical than any other forum that I am aware of.

My monitor is calibrated regularly so it cannot in theory be that so it must be my eyes, which are probably worn out after too much staring in the bush:w3