Water buck

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A close look at a waterbuck at Chobe.
1/250
f/5.6
ISO 800
5D III
700mm

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Sanjeev

Difficult one to pull off- light was either early morning/late afternoon with the sun only caressing some outlines of the body.
Not enough MT contrast in the rest of fur/body, the BG more brighter than subject-eye keeps wondering to BG.
Personally might have tried some -EV to get a different effect with a bigger crop.
Just my humble opinion...

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev- Nice to see a waterbuck posted. I like the light hitting the face but agree with Andre that the midtones can use a boost, an easy fix. My biggest issue with the image is the tracks/lines of dirt intersecting with the head. Not sure that you could have avoided it from the safari vehicle. Also looks like a slight masking issue on the outside of the horn on the right as we are looking at the image.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Rachel, yes I noticed the masking issue near the horn, will fix it and the mid tones. Thanks Andre for the feedback.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Sanjeev,

Always great to see Waterbuck, they are quite shy around here and a real treat to see the young ones, if one is lucky. Nice detail in the fur and I like the way the sun touches its face. I think the sharpness is great, although I noticed some artefacts caused by either blurring of BG or cloning, see if you can fix that area on the bottom LHS near the hind leg (behind it).

Frame a tad tight on the bottom but not much you can do about that - I struggle with the same issue on occasion, in which case I add canvas if the image is too precious to bin. You could perhaps diminish those lines intersecting the head by desaturating predominant colours (like blue) and lightening the area where possible.

Lovely pose and I enjoyed looking at this wonderful healthy Waterbuck, it must have been awesome to get so close to him!

Kind regards,

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- I totally agree with the suggestions and observations above . I like this subject and the warmish light hitting its face , but the issues mentioned above if rectified will lift this image to a certain extent .

TFS !