Spotty Looks for Trouble

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is for you, Rachel:w3

Here's Spotty, a young female busy to establish her dominance among other youngsters in her mother's clan. Despite her innocent and cute looks she is actually quite a bully, and just like mom - the Alpha female - she has little tolerance for the boys in the family. Spotty is demanding, boisterous, intelligent and cunning. She gave me a hard time when I tried to photograph her and ran around the vehicle like crazy, even tried to nibble on the tyres! The Exif shows the camera settings which I do realise are not ideal, too little DoF when I could really afford some more. But under the circumstances I hope you'll forgive me:

Nikon D5
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 3200
F6.3
1/3200s
1/3EV

This is FF, an older image I processed some time ago. Very dark due to poor lighting conditions and I had to lift exposure and take care of some shadows. The greenish tinge on the fur can be explained by the presence of algae in the water. I did another round of sharpening tonight before posting, also flipped horizontally. Not one of my best images and certainly not near as exciting as some of the recent posts in this Forum, but I thought you might like this character:)

Kind regards,

[keith mitchell]

Gabriela I'm just enjoying the head and face with that intense stare,I think the eyes ,nose and ears all look very good to me,I also like reading about the antics of this one,do see what you are saying about dof but I ask the question for my benefit,would it be possible to get the back end of the animal in focus with the animal at that angle?

Keith.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Keith,

Good question and I like your thinking. My answer would be, IMO the head and right limb are much sharper in relation with the rest of the body. Perhaps F10 would have been a nice compromise and might have produced a smoother transition? Curious what the other members think and whether they are happy with this as is - looking forward to what they have to say.

Kind regards,

[keith mitchell]

Gabriela I know from a technical point I would be wrong, but like I said the face was the thing that does it for me, so the rest even though important does not distract from the image,hope I am explaining myself in a way that you can understand.look forward to reading the views of others .
Keith.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Sure thing, I understand precisely what you mean dear Keith, much appreciated:5

[Jonathan Ashton]

Gabriela I am with Keith - happy with DOF - concetration is maintained on the head.
Overall I get the impression the image is a little flat, I have taken the liberty of making an alternative for your consideration baring in mind the dull light you indicated:-

[Gabriela Plesea]

I like it Jon - nice and subtle, thank you very much:5

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - Thanks for a hyena image. This is nice and simple. I like the inquisitive look and Jon's rp has taken it up a notch. The one thing that strikes is how smooth the dirt/sand appears given your description of her running around. I would expect footprints, etc. Did you do any clean up? Btw I also think the dof is fine. At a close distance as you described, you would really need to stop down to get the whole body in focus and I don't think it is necessary here.

TFS,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

HI Gabriela -- This is a lovely hyena image , nice details with good techs , the framing is also very nice. DOf is not an issue for me either it is well presented with animals face being the main interest point. overcoming the dark settings , you might have added some grains in the subject or is due to slight oversharpening , because looking carefully , i can see that crunchiness in its dominant eye and also the fur on its back.

Of course Jon's RP has improved this with the much needed punch .

TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you all so much for viewing and comments:)

To answer your questions: Rachel, not much clean up, only a few tiny clumps of grasses like the one next to the hyena's right foot. As you can see, the sand is not very soft and even tyre tracks are not that visible in the frame. This character snooped around the vehicle and I remember looking out of the window to see what she was doing, surely there must have been plenty tracks where she walked:) Haseeb, I did not sharpen the hair on the back as it was OOF anyway. I did sharpen the face before posting and the wet fur below the ear.

Let us see what other predator I can find for this month's Theme, thank again everyone, I will be back:w3

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela ...your girlfriend looks like she was on a mission :w3
I like the walking pose of her and the overall clean image , with no distracting elements , nice low POV for a shot taken from the car.
DOF is fine for me , i just think the image needs more punch ....

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Andreas,

This one was on a mission to nibble on my car's tyres, I think:)

In two minds about adding more punch as those young things are quite dull looking in real life. Will send you a raw at the week-end if I am at home, maybe you could give me an idea of how far you would like to go? I have quite a few frames of this youngster.

Much appreciated, Boetie. Have a super evening:5