Brown hares boxing

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS & 1.4TC , beanbag, ISO 800 1/1600 sec f5.6, this is another shot from the series previously submitted. I have been playing around with the ACR settings for noise reduction - many thanks to Morkel and Rachel. I am a lot happier now, it is strange over the years I tend to go this way then that thinking this method is better than that, for some reason I had got it into my mindset that ACR noise reduction was a no no becasue it softens the image. This is true but so does any NR system they are generally speaking antagonistic to sharpening regimes. I think minimal NR in ACR and a generous mask when applying modest sharpening makes fora good recipe. In Photoshop I applied a mask to the hares and relevant DOF areas I then applied a very light surface blur to the background.
All comments however critical are welcomed - I won't be offended!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Jon - I'm glad it helped. I think pp is an evolving process and that we can always pick up a different way of doing something or another hint. There are probably many different ways to arrive at the same result. I like the playfulness of this image and the sense of motion. I do think I would prefer less room on the lhs and more on the rhs to give the hare room to keep jumping further.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jonathan, can I ask, is your choice of comp down to where you position the Focus point because doesn't the 7D have limited amount of FP compared to other bodies? I don't think this is perhaps as good an image as your previous one, but just personal preference. I also feel this is a difficult one to crop, but still keeping the subjects central and loosing space either side may help, just seems a lot of negative space? I would also add some more selective USM, as compared to the previous image that looked spot on in terms of sharpness & clarity and I would suggest removing the two brighter blades of grass in front of the jumping hare.

As WE progress in terms of shooting and PP we ALL change the way we tackle our images, as we gain more knowledge and so we can refine what and how we do things, you are just honing your skill set Jonathan and in a years time I bet you will have changed again. :S3:

TFS
Steve

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Jonathan,

love your hare images. I agree with Steve, you had better ones posted already with sharpness & clarity. With the comp I might would crop a bit from LHS! As well suggest removing those 2 grass blades. Just my thoughts :e3

Have a great day

Ciao
Anette

[Nancy Bell]

That wide open eye really catches my eye! You captured a great moment with the hare in mid-leap far enough above the lower hare so no front body parts intersect. I also think the crop could be adjusted having less space on the left and more on the right.
And here! here! for the comment that pp is an evolving art. I am living proof!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks again everyone, I think I need to re-modify my Perold sharpening action for 1200px, the 1024 version is sharper.