Bison and Calf

[Ken Pollock]

This image was taken in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.<o:p></o:p>
Canon 5DIII
100-400 III +1.4 III @ 560 mm
ISO 640
1/2000 s
f/8<o:p></o:p>
PP with Capture One Pro 10 included sharpening,curves, and cropping.<o:p></o:p>
All comments welcome.
Thanks,
Ken

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Ken,

This is a very special capture and the first time for me to see a Bison calf, very cute and innocent looking:)

A well composed image and the colours are great. I also think your techs are great, so a bit puzzled as to why the Bison mom (especially her head, not so much the muzzle) seems to me a bit soft, could you perhaps check where your focus point was? Never easy with those tall grasses and perhaps they got in the way. Or maybe you were aiming at the little one? F8 should have been enough, but then again I am not sure how far you were and how much of a crop this is. Nevertheless I would really like to see more from this sighting if you have, kindly post some more?

Have a wonderful evening and a great week ahead,

Kind regards,

[haseeb badar]

Hi Mike -- Agree with what Gabriela has to say , is that a big crop ? The Adult looks soft especially the head . I would also like to see some more space at the bottom of the frame and cropping some of the top .
TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

PS. Dear Ken, please never get discouraged by our critique, we are all a bunch of nitpickers, myself included :w3

[Basil Dardagan]

There is a lovely motherly warmth and feeling to this image. Also I think you have handled the dark and light elements well. The catch light in both their eyes is a big plus for me. The crop is a little different however it def works for me !! I agree that it looks a little soft in places

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Ken - Always nice to see a red doggie. I like the combination of the bison against both the brown and green grass. I agree with Gabriela and Haseeb about the adult appearing a little soft and needing a bit more room below.

TFS,
Rachel

[Ken Pollock]

167144'

Thanks to all for your comments. I am not at all discouraged, but, in fact, encouraged. I really want to improve and the type of feedback I'm getting here is very helpful.

I've attached a screen grab from DPP showing the focus point on the full sized image. It's on the face of the adult so I'm not sure why it is soft. I'll try to do some localized sharpening to see if that improves things. Any thoughts on whether or not the crop is too big?

Thanks again,
Ken

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Ken - I personally do not crop that much as I think it affects IQ (pixel bashing).

[haseeb badar]

Ken, wider version looks better than a very close crop in this case and also it won't affect the IQ .

[Mike Hitchen]

The grasses (and the detail on the nose) suggest it may be focussed a bit in front of the bison's eye.
One senior contributor here recently posted advice on sharpening after you have created the jpeg - IIRC it was along the lines of sharpen as normal, convert to jpeg, open the jpeg in PS (or program of choice), resharpen at the chosen size and then save again then post to the site. Maybe that will h elp.,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ken, based on the OP I would move the whole crop down so the trim edge at the top is at the start of the lighter grass. The techs look good and I would have expanded the FP's here, but you may have already done that?


What is the Software you use to processes with?

Adding some pre-sharpening at the RAW stage I think is fine prior to exporting to PS as a Tiff, but once you have made any additional changes and saved the Tiff as a PSD (Master file) you can then crop to your Output i.e. 1200px x 848px, with Save As each time (with a different name) so you DON'T over write the Master file. Then you sharpen (perceptual sharpening) at the Output size (final size).

If you want to, upload the CRS file via Dropbox, I will gladly take a look for you, but as presented the image is soft. Drop me a PM with your email and we can exchange if you wish.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Ken you captured a nice mother/child frame .You have nice color contrast with the landscape .
Yep looks a bit soft and i think the CR2 file might not be as sharp as it should be . Agree that this is borderline of cropping .
TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

A cute image for sure.
I agree the image quality has suffered due to crop, and perhaps also due to your use of the teleconverter with the 100-400mm zoom lens over a distance where heat haze surely would also come into play.

[Ken Pollock]

Haseeb, Mike, Steve, Andreas and Morkel,

Thank you all for your comments. I will go back and reduce the crop and try some sharpening.

Steve, thank for offering the additional help. I'll send you a PM.

Thanks again to all,
Ken

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve, thank for offering the additional help. I'll send you a PM.

I will look out for it.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ken, I have replied in an email(s), but there are some fundamentals that YOU need to address I feel before shooting any more images which I have highlighted.

cheers
Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ken, I will be brief here as I have sent a lot more to you, but:

- You need to check camera & lens calibration
- Change the cameras Working Space
- Understand the difference between 'Input' sharpening & 'Output' sharpening
-Understand the difference between Adobe RGB as 'Working Space' and sRGB for Web posting
- Learn about ETTR exposure. A good exposure will ensure a good IQ to start with and will avoid lifting (lightening) an image which will highlight noise!!!!
- Avoid hefty crops - as IQ will suffer. Try to frame in camera with say a 10-20% margin for final presentation
- Ensure your Monitor is calibrated at least once a month, otherwise you will have issues

Sadly the RAW was not sharp, but here is a RP (Re Post)