The roar:Young fallow Buck, Dama dama

[Stuart Philpott]

Hey guys,I hope you are all well. Our fallow exploits have continued at all and every available chance,my apologies for so little posting of late,my little spare time has been spent more with a camera in hand than in web land:w3

This is what I believe to be three year old buck, I might be wrong. He is certainly not mature,although we have no pictures as of yet we have finally watched wild fallow actually rutting. It was spectacular,we just need some luck now.


We caught up with this fella and his small harem on Sunday morning. As we are on foot and I'm a bit focal length limited I took these images with the 2X extender on. I cannot find a documented case of a wild fallow harming anyone, in blighty, but due care and respect is foremost here hence the distance and 2x on my 300f 2.8. We got pretty much in for maybe an hour and out again without them knowing ,so I have a huge amount of frames to work through. This was our first time though with a buck and his does so this encounter is incredibly special too me. It was beautiful watching him with his ladies absolutely enchanting and once again we learnt just that bit more about this special deer .

I have cropped this more than I would like mainly to get a clean frame of just him. I hope to follow this with more soon if time allows. Framing the harem I found incredibly difficult without clipping someone ,frustratingly so !! But that is almost always the case when one encounters these guys as the herd instinct is so strong and they are so alert.

Shot is hand held lying down as always it seems,i'm very pleased with the craft that got us here,image processed in DPP 4,life is not being kind so sadly I still can't progress any further with post but we are still putting in the hours and learning much in the field. I'd like to thank all of you deeply and from the heart for helping us so much.:5 My passion for this goes unabated despite you not seeing much of me of late .


Canon 1div 300f/2.8 extiii 2X
TV 1/1600
f7.1
iso1600

take care

Stu

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Stuart - Good to see you posting again and getting out in the field. Unfortunately, I think the large crop has negatively affected the IQ of the image. How about posting the wider shot?

TFS,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

HI Stuart -- great to see you back and posting . Certainly the IQ looks quite affected by the crop . Why don't you try a BW version here , looks almost monochromatic !

TFS !

[Stuart Philpott]

Hi Stuart - Good to see you posting again and getting out in the field. Unfortunately, I think the large crop has negatively affected the IQ of the image. How about posting the wider shot?

TFS,
Rachel

Hiya Rachel ,I hope you are well mate. I'm sorry to have been away,but we really have been getting out alot. I'll get the whole pic up tomorrow for you if that's ok my time is so compressed tonight.

Hasseeb i'm concerned it might be the 2x affecting IQ Steve has advised me to try and stay away from it if possible,but here I need to stay back a bit as the boys are very fired up at this time. Thanks for the suggestion B& W is something I hadn't thought of.

Both thanks for the warmth ,i'm so sorry to be posting under duress,but It's the only way I can share and learn with you all

take care both

Stu

ps
Rachel, a little question: for the theme,with a species such as this where the females don't carry antlers as with the young is it ok to post those,or do you specifically want horned beasties only ie males ?

I hope to share more soon I'm amassing frames faster than I can deal with them at this time Thank you for the reply

[Bill Nuttall]

Hi Stu

you can sharpen up the deer with local adjustment

do you think that it would be better if the Buck was over to the left looking into space on the right .... i.e the reverse of your composition

[Rachel Hollander]

Stu - We never discussed it but personally I have no problem with females and young being included in the theme if only the males have horns, antlers, or tusks.

[Stuart Philpott]

165735Hi folks, Rachel here is the uncropped version.

Bill,the crop isn't what I wanted yes of course you are right and that is what I would have liked to have framed if possible with my given abilities/tools. Bill i need to be careful here,I have ability to get close,I need to show due care,I need reach here which I haven't got.

I was also of trying to fullfill the theme Rache ( THANKYOU Rachel ) has just given me access to a whole host of images I'd prefer to this,but I've never made images of wild buck fallow in the heat of the mating season before. So there is a bit of special for me to share in this picture,tis hard won this.

Bill i'm stuck with DPP (canon own raw converter,you are nikon )my computer will not support PS and funds and not happening despite effort So simply I cannot selectively sharpen,I'm aware of the potential Bill the guys here have really shown me, you have too,but it is how it is. I guess the biggest thing that always worries me is critical sharpness in the RAW mate if I have that I can come back when I am able to learn the craft of processing.
Ha it's always lovely to hear from you too buddy

Rachel what do you make of the original ? Thanks again for the thoughts

take care both

Stu

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Stu - unfortunately I don't think the IQ or sharpness is there in the ff image either. Sorry.

Thanks for posting the ff though.

Rachel

[Bill Nuttall]

165735Hi folks, Rachel here is the uncropped version.

Bill,the crop isn't what I wanted yes of course you are right and that is what I would have liked to have framed if possible with my given abilities/tools. Bill i need to be careful here,I have ability to get close,I need to show due care,I need reach here which I haven't got.

I was also of trying to fullfill the theme Rache ( THANKYOU Rachel ) has just given me access to a whole host of images I'd prefer to this,but I've never made images of wild buck fallow in the heat of the mating season before. So there is a bit of special for me to share in this picture,tis hard won this.

Bill i'm stuck with DPP (canon own raw converter,you are nikon )my computer will not support PS and funds and not happening despite effort So simply I cannot selectively sharpen,I'm aware of the potential Bill the guys here have really shown me, you have too,but it is how it is. I guess the biggest thing that always worries me is critical sharpness in the RAW mate if I have that I can come back when I am able to learn the craft of processing.
Ha it's always lovely to hear from you too buddy

Rachel what do you make of the original ? Thanks again for the thoughts

take care both

Stu

Hi Stu

Software - I think Adobe are giving early versions of Lightroom away free - I will try to find a link - worth a try to start with

Photoshop Elements - the latest version is about £50 - earlier versions cheaper - not bad

LR will do a lot as a photographers processing tool - it is quicker to learn than PS - and is all you need 80% of the time - lots of good tutorials on line - if you take them step by step you can pick up the basics quickly

[Mike Hitchen]

Nice shot, Stuart. I know that feeling well of getting the first one in the bag and it just pushes you to get more.

There are some very good, free, editors which support layers and will allow some selective editing - one I have used is GIMP and another I believe is photo.net and they are surprisingly light on computer resource. Each have their own 'how to' manuals and web groups for advice.

[Stuart Philpott]

Mike cheers for joining in and your advice, very kind !! Bill if I can bring you in here as well. It's the PC guys I need better. My son will sort ,i just am strapped ,hey ho. Lads I've been watching a wild herd of fallow breed,it's been magical and I have 100's if not more to sort out. PC is struggling with dpp4, frankly. But I'm having a ball doing this,so although it's frustrating it isn't a problem tis frustrating though lol.

It's sort of cool getting out over and over and barely having time to take stock,surely from the fresh eyes to an image point of view, but also sort of exciting cause I can't have messed all of them up,he said laughing !!

take care both

Stu

[Bill Nuttall]

Mike cheers for joining in and your advice, very kind !! Bill if I can bring you in here as well. It's the PC guys I need better. My son will sort ,i just am strapped ,hey ho. Lads I've been watching a wild herd of fallow breed,it's been magical and I have 100's if not more to sort out. PC is struggling with dpp4, frankly. But I'm having a ball doing this,so although it's frustrating it isn't a problem tis frustrating though lol.

It's sort of cool getting out over and over and barely having time to take stock,surely from the fresh eyes to an image point of view, but also sort of exciting cause I can't have messed all of them up,he said laughing !!

take care both

Stu


Hi Stu - I see what you are saying - lack of power in your PC to cope with big files

Try the following:

a). Take jpeg - three types - fine, normal and low - see how each loads and the time taken

b). There will also be three sizes, Big, normal and small

c). Look at your in camera settings for jpegs, you can add sharpness, saturation, etc., etc., - experiment ........ try to improve your OOC, (out of camera jpegs)

Maybe this will speed your work flow up until you can upgrade your computer

add a little more RAW to your computer, (if it will take anymore), is easy to do and quite cheap - crucial.co.uk or .com will give you an idea

Good look

keep well

Bill

[Stuart Philpott]

Bill cheers again for the advice and thoughts in trying to help me.

Buddy I always felt i'd be take the long road with this,my biggest concern with doing the above would be loosing some of of flexibility of having a RAW file to work up in the future, on those rare occassions I take an image that is special to me. Not only in me doing my part as a photographer,but also what exactly I have captured,light conditions subject behaviours etc. Bill these images are rare for sure , but banking them for a time later when I can use and have a better post processing engine has always been part of my mindset. So I feel that moving forwards I have to shoot in RAW to give myself the best possible files to work up later on. I must be tediously frustrating Bill and can only apologise,but I feel that while I am enjoying this all so much and grafting at it,there will always be a long tern hope that I might capture something really special,when I do I feel it it has to be in a RAW as jpegs won't give me the same flexiblity later on,leastways that is my understanding,which could well be wrong?


Buddy at the end you said about adding a little more RAW to the computer,do you actually mean RAM?? Mate i'm not great with all this, so just checking that I am understanding you correctly, this is probably a typo,but I would like to be sure.

Thanks as always Bill

Stu

[Bill Nuttall]

Bill cheers again for the advice and thoughts in trying to help me.

Buddy I always felt i'd be take the long road with this,my biggest concern with doing the above would be loosing some of of flexibility of having a RAW file to work up in the future, on those rare occassions I take an image that is special to me. Not only in me doing my part as a photographer,but also what exactly I have captured,light conditions subject behaviours etc. Bill these images are rare for sure , but banking them for a time later when I can use and have a better post processing engine has always been part of my mindset. So I feel that moving forwards I have to shoot in RAW to give myself the best possible files to work up later on. I must be tediously frustrating Bill and can only apologise,but I feel that while I am enjoying this all so much and grafting at it,there will always be a long tern hope that I might capture something really special,when I do I feel it it has to be in a RAW as jpegs won't give me the same flexiblity later on,leastways that is my understanding,which could well be wrong?


Buddy at the end you said about adding a little more RAW to the computer,do you actually mean RAM?? Mate i'm not great with all this, so just checking that I am understanding you correctly, this is probably a typo,but I would like to be sure.

Thanks as always Bill

Stu

I mean't RAM Stu

( I am trying to suggest that you relieve one of your frustration - OK, take two files, a RAW and a jpeg - keep the RAWs for later and store offline and work on the jpegs)

to tell you the truth when starting out with processing there are not many who can convert a RAW file to look better than a mildly adjusted jpeg - I often take both and compare and I am very surprised how good the jpegs are - get your in Camera settings "right" and all the better - I often take jpegs and all I have to do are B & W points and shadow/highlights, then crop - less than one minute processing

Can you tell the difference in the two images - one image, a jpeg, with hardly any work, the other the RAW with lots more work

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, I'm not going to cover old ground, but you are better off shooting RAW - Fact. You have far more leeway & control over your images and it's not a compressed file like a JPEG. If you shoot both RAW & JPEG then the camera will take time to buffer, therefore keep to RAW. Then, when both funds & you can upgrade your PC you can expand on archived images, you'll kick yourself if you have a series of cracking images, but PP is limited because it's a JPEG.

Hi Bill, I appreciate your help in the thread and showing comparisons for Stu, however it's best for this to be kept to either a new thread in say the 'Workflow' Forum, or as PM's and if the author allows, further exchanges can be made via email, in this way the original thread doesn't go off Topic.

Cheers guys.

[Bill Nuttall]

Hi Stu, I'm not going to cover old ground, but you are better off shooting RAW - Fact. You have far more leeway & control over your images and it's not a compressed file like a JPEG. If you shoot both RAW & JPEG then the camera will take time to buffer, therefore keep to RAW. Then, when both funds & you can upgrade your PC you can expand on archived images, you'll kick yourself if you have a series of cracking images, but PP is limited because it's a JPEG.

Hi Bill, I appreciate your help in the thread and showing comparisons for Stu, however it's best for this to be kept to either a new thread in say the 'Workflow' Forum, or as PM's and if the author allows, further exchanges can be made via email, in this way the original thread doesn't go off Topic.

Cheers guys.

I did not suggest that Stu should not take RAW files, period or in the future

The important thing is for Stu to be able to engaged with the pp software and enjoy processing his images, just as he should with his equipment and subject

You have misrepresented what I said by saying to Stu that "you'll kick himself if"

and by closing my conversation in the way that you have done in your posting is unfair ....... tell me, by how much (time or number of shots) are shots in the buffer effected by adding a normal jpeg to each shots - are you suggesting that you just press the shutter when you see an image and take as many shots as you can?

After listening to what Stu said, practical advice is what I gave considering Stu's PC and his level of processing knowledge, (I "know" Stu from another Forum) to help him to move forward ......... simply saying "you are better off shooting RAW - fact" IMHO is of very little use to anyone - as this is a well known fact, or I would rather say preference, as far a (most) Bird and (many Wildlife) Photographers are concerned.

I have seen so many people who have been put off by slow computers, complicated pp apps and this mystique of RAW files

[Steve Kaluski]

Bill, since joining BPN I have helped Stu a lot more that you perhaps know or are aware of (to my knowledge), I understand where he is and where he needs to be, but this will take time.

Shooting both RAW & JPEG is wasting time (albeit fractions) but more importantly, it takes up card space, space that could be crucial if he has been out in the field all day and where 'chimping' is not an option, as this too drains valuable battery life.

If you noted, I did say I appreciated you help, my point is that he needs to keep his Fieldcraft, camera techniques and ultimately his PP skills all within a simple Workflow because of constraints, adding JPEG's is just an addition that I feel he does not need, nor can his HD cope with additional imagery, therefore shoot to one medium RAW. The IQ will be better, Colour is greater, and you are dealing with raw information, not a compressed file.

There is no 'mystique' about RAW files, it's simply the way to go, people who tend to use JPEG's in the Pro world tend to be Sports & Pap Photographers and that comes down to sending files speedily.

At the end of the day Stu can distill from the raft of information outlined in the thread and then make the judgement call.

[Stuart Philpott]

Guys I so appreciate your help and thoughts, thank you so much!! But I do want to keep to topic if I possibly can. Please don't worry on this Bill we'll talk it isn't a problem at all. I'm not going to give this up I love this, the frustration is minor. I just wanted to post an image for the theme tis all and didn't know whether there would be time again before the end of the month.

As well as the theme and saying hi to folks whom have helped me much I wanted the group's assement on sharpness here: I have a tremendous amount of frames to pare back and feel this frame well special to me personally gave me a yardstick to help with an area I feel is a weakness of mine. IQ wise I worried from the off about the 2X but needed reach so gambled,
Please no hard feelings though, I wanted to bring a bit of joy here by sharing something I found wonderful and as always learn. Also thanks for the difference of opinion it gives me more to choose from.

Cheers both i'm off to study some deer pics

take care

Stu

Stu