The Innocent one

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I made this image of Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel in Colorado, San Juan National Forest.

He was curious so I was able to get down from my car and crawl on my belly and get close enough to make portrait.


Nikon D850, 70-200 f/4, 1.x4 TCIII
ISO 640, f/10, 1/400 sec, +0.3 EV
Aperture Priority, Matrix Metering

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

Post processing:-

RAW processing using Capture 1 Pro
Nik Filters, Neat Image and Affinity Photo

Remove small distracting element in bottom right corner.

Hope you like it.


Thanks
Krishna

[John Mack]

Nice pose on the little guy. Like the composition here. You must have been quite close at f/10 the depth of field really falls off. Nice background as well.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Krishna - The pose and comp work quite well. My initial impression though is that the image looks a little too cooked with strong reds, yellows and contrast. I would go with a lighter hand at the pp. Good field work to get so close.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Krishna, I like the fact you are slightly lower than the subject looking sight up, nice perspective IMHO. The colours do look a little saturated but and I would reduce the blue in the eye for sure.

Using C1 is far better than ACR, you can do so much, just wished some of the features LR would adopt, but I too am surprised how much DoF has tailed off at f/10, depending on the distance I might have gone to say f/7.1 to gain more. I also feel shooting with the D850 you could have easily afforded more SS and gone to say 1/1000 or 1600, better to have a hint of noise (if any) than a soft image.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - opening up to f7.1 will give Krishna less dof, not more.

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve - opening up to f7.1 will give Krishna less dof, not more.

Subject to distance, personally I think he was too close to the subject, either pull back so f/10 can work, or drop the DoF.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Thank you all for the comments. I did not change colors as part of post processing. Saturation was increased by only 6 points (very minimal in my opinion)

I increased the brightness of the image.

I agree with the shutter speed. I was photographing landscapes and hence it was set to 100 before this shot. Prior to this camera I was using D500 and 640 was my start point in that camera. So sub consciously set it 640 and did not change the same.

Thanks
Krishna

[Steve Kaluski]

I did not change colors as part of post processing.

Ultimately your call Krishna, but I would always look to changing the WB as part of the workflow within the early stages of PP, in that way you can avoid colour casts and hopefully have a more 'reflective' image, however it all depends on how you wish to portray the final image. Thanks for expanding on the techs. :S3:

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Thank you.

I always have trouble setting white balance properly. I tried to fiddle with white balance and I see what you mean. I am comparing this one with the one where I changed white balance. It is much better.

Now the question is How to set white Balance correctly in the first place ?

[Steve Kaluski]

Now the question is How to set white Balance correctly in the first place ?

Personally I think it is very easy, some folk may not, others prefer to do it by eye for a more, perhaps 'artistic' approach. I will drop you a line/PM, but it won't be instant as I am 'hammered' at the moment with printing a load of stuff, and then away next week, but I will answer you.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Krishna , a sweet shot of this species .
Looks a bit overdone to me .
Well you use quite an armada of tools ...to get your desired result , less can be more :w3 , but your call .
The most question is .....why use Affinity ?

TFS Andreas

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

The following is the answer the Question Why Affinity Photo?

I wanted to move out completely from Adobe Products. In my opinion Affinity photo is the closest equivalent to photoshop. So I am using the same.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Ah ok ......thanks for the info .
If you use C1 you can go only with it , IMHO .
But your call
Cheers Andreas