Coyote

[Loi Nguyen]

Saw this coyote stalking a family of whooping cranes at a distance. I had the 2X on for the cranes, so this is a full frame.

1DX
500f4 II +2X III
1/640
f8
ISO-2000
Handheld from boat.

Overcast sky, not much light.

Appreciate your comments.

thank you

Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - Nice stalking pose and it's good that you were able to get the whole coyote in frame. In ideal shooting conditions I would prefer more room especially below and to the right. The yellow in the fur seems a bit bright to me but you were there. If it were mine I would drop the sat of the yellows and also darken them in a hue/saturation level. I would apply a round of NR to the bg. I might also back off on the sharpening just the slightest bit.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, I would agree on Rachel's appraisal of your image, however I would use selective colour rather than saturation to adjust the colours. Perhaps going to f/5.6 would have given you a bit more SS and enough DOF on this one. Run a mid tone over the hole image also helps and just tames the more 'brighter' areas overall. If you were tracking this and moving with it, then a head on portrait format would have been good too.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi,
honestly i think this is not the best image, from you,to leave this year , sadly.
Personally nothing grabs me here.
Some issues already covered by Steve and Rachel.
Even with respect to the combo you used and the SS you had for handholding, think this image is for the bin.

Sorry for being so negative , i am just honest, and i wonder about the fact that the two mods said nothing about IQ, at least you shot with the DX.

Loi , have a wonderful New Years Eve and good and healthy 2014, looking forward for some new and better :t3 images in the next year, please do not take the last words too serious.

Regards Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

i wonder about the fact that the two mods said nothing about IQ

Because Andreas to me it's more about how the image was processed rather than the IQ of the image, that looks OK, but I feel there is more you can get from the image and would perhaps might dispel that thought? :S3:

Perhaps Loi, if you want, fire of the RAW to both of us and we can see, but I feel the IQ is OK, but there again, you could well be correct Andreas.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Ok Steve, understand your point, but i will keep my thoughts, unless Loi giving an option for having a play with the original.
But only to see about IQ.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, I have to agree with Andreas that this is an awful image now that I'm back home and looking at it with a HP IPS monitor. I was working on my lap top, so I didn't really see how crunchy and off colors it looks.

Steve, thanks for offering to look at the RAW file. I will post it. Something really weird here, not sure If I can explain it.

I started from scratch, converted the image in LR% and then opened it in CS6. As I started zooming in and out of the image, it looks much crunchier. I have never seen it before.

Thanks

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Loi, you may have been in between zoom figures, 33% & 66% images can look weird, always check you are at 25, 50 & 100%.

Got the file, will take a look later, as Xmas decoration need to come down, as I'm away again in a couple of days time.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, looking at the file I think:
- WB & exposure looks OK
- FP I would expand them, you are on the finest of the 1DX and therefore I would expand them either to 5 or 9, plus it's trailing behind the head
- The image isn't that sharp, perhaps a little movement from both sides?
- I've also backed off a lot on the sharpening too, as it does start to get crunchy

The overall colour and 'our' take will vary through all the things we already know, but perhaps this might be a route to look at, WDYT?

cheers
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve,
looking now at the image , still think it is for the bin from the technical POV.Colors look pretty good now, for sure , because you have treated the image.
I think the image is just blurred , due to the shooting conditions.
There is no fine detail visible in the head, specially in the area from the nose to the ears, so called key area, you refer very often to it, Steve.
Think you did a good job on making the most out of it.

Could you post a 100% view of the head and surrounding from the original with all settings set to zero in lightroom, i mean ALL.

Thanks Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I think we all know the short coming of the image sadly, so I cannot see any advantage of posting the RAW at 100% as all the feedback has covered it well and Loi I feel, can build on the feedback. If he agrees, I can alway fwd it to you. :S3:

[Andreas Liedmann]

Ok Steve, no need for fwd the image, will leave it at this stage.

Cheers for now.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Steve, thank you for wprking on this image. It is as good as it is going to get.

Andreas, I agree that this image goes to the trash bin. Should never have posted an image just by looking at the lap top.

Let's start a new year with a clean sheet of paper!

Loi