Doe Eyes

[Chris Zink]

I was walking through a wildlife refuge (looking at the ground for turtles, actually) when I heard a rustle and turned to find myself almost face to face with this young Sika Deer. I was so close that with my 600 mm lens, this was as much of its face as I could get. I took a few shots and she was off and away into the woods. I think we both startled each other. Any thoughts, assistance would be appreciated. The background of this photo is what it is - it would have been nicer if it were green, but...

Nikon D300, ISO 400, 1/320, f5.6, 600 mm f4 VR lens hand-held (rested on tree).

Thanks, all!

Chris Zink

[Robert Amoruso]

Chris,

You certainly nailed the sharpness on the eyes and the BG looks good to me. The predicament for me here is that you were so close the 600mm compressed the view and made the nose way OOF which is distracting to me. As they say the eyes have it and that is the case here.

I cropped for the eyes in the repost. You can go even more - I tried and liked it even better then what I posted here but figured I let you decide if and how far you might want to explore different crops.

I also sharpened the whole image again to help alone the less sharp areas and then created a layer mask and masked out the sharpening in the eyes and nose bridge as that became over sharpened.

[Nonda Surratt]

Up close and personal! Love the eyes and really like Roberts crop

[Lance Peters]

Love the eyes and roberts recrop, personally I would even give it a slight bit of clockwise rotation.

Lance

[Harold Davis]

cool image, chris!!!!! love robert's repost!! that's a great idea.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Chris Very cool image !!!

I like your crop and don't mind the oof nose but do wish both eyes were square to the film plane. Looks like the left is closer and dof is minimal. You need both razor sharp for it to work !! Would also give a little more room for the mouth, ears are fine since they look cut on purpose.

btw going for maximum dof not sure it would made all that much difference, might want to check the tables.. its minima with that lens at that distance !!!!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Love the crop!

[Chris Zink]

Thanks everyone! Your comments are extremely helpful!. Thanks for the crop and selective sharpening too! You're the greatest!

Chris

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great image either ways. Do agree on the focus aspect.
Congrats.