Leveret

[Stuart Philpott]

There is a deliberte choice in framing ,not so much for the image shown which is what it is,but for the what might have been. I probably had the most strange lunch ever sat under the tailgate of our camper parked in a field where hares live. Had to drop my grub for a fella that appeared from the wood and then decided to come and investigate us. While sipping on my tea this tiny fella appeared, on the brow of the hill ..... and gave us a rare glimpse into the world of baby hare madness...............


slowly I put on pad,s thorn proof stuff ( TOO HOT) . Naturally the light crashed ............. Fella was charging about like a mad thing ears all ways. People need to see a baby hare learning to run ,it's some sight !!. Getting to him was easy: then waiting for what seemed like an age for him to appear from a tiny rut. That tiny rut had all but an ear hidden Suddenly he was really aware of me and in seconds was on me. Baby hares are so hypo ,it is unreal in seconds gone.... not scared just disappeared and then back again so close from within a grass run I felt I could touch the little rascal. A real missed chance I'll rarely see again that grass run image

In some images I can see the break in the front which was 1/2 hour away in fella's eye. I so wish I had more dof withing this set well just a tad more light bit more SS good bit more DOF.

Made around 6.30PM under dark heavy cloud 560mm no crop 1DXii 400DO IS II DPP then PS in post.

1/1600 f 5.6 iso 6400

Aren't they the most gorgeous thing nature created ha :bg3: those ears!!

thanks so much for the thoughts on my previous endevours:cheers:

take care

stu

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Stu, a nice low angle on this one and the central framing works. I love the huge ears and the running pose with eye contact. If light was better, then more SS and DOF would have been nicer.

[Steve Kaluski]

Now that's a belter of an image Stu, perfect angle and love the low aspect. Think you could afford to come in a tad on the sides and I wonder if a portrait version would have been better, so 50/50 for me. Looking at the techs you were already at ISO6400, but if this youngster got any closer you would struggle with your DoF, pre-set to f/8 worry about the ISO later, but here the DoF has worked in your favour.

I feel you could loose the Blue and go greyer in the horizon, perhaps darker in the FG to bring some tonal difference and pop some Sat in the eyes & ears, but that's me being a bit artistic :bg3:, however I do think you are a tad conservative on the sharpening. Might loose the leaf LHS?
Stu, this is excellent work, pour yourself a wee tot! :cheers:

TFS
Steve

[haseeb badar]

By far your best Stu, Absolutely loved the low POV and the running pose, you have done extremely well here, though I might have liked a bit less space on the RHS as viewed. I liked what Steve has done with his RP coz on seeing your OP i instantly felt that you could certainly give more pop to this image. Nice techs as well for this kind of result.

I so much enjoyed viewing this one, I hope to attempt something similar with a Tiger and live to post here :bg3:.

TFS !

[Steve Kaluski]

I hope to attempt something similar with a Tiger and live to post here

Haseeb, give me a heads up on this one, as I want to be around to view it too. :bg3:

[haseeb badar]

@ Steve -- I will have to ask someone for a video rec to share with you later. But on a serious note i have attempted twice, lying in front of a sub-adult tiger once ( that was in 2012 but due to bad techs i have kept it to myself), second time in 2016 but heat haze was the culprit, i sometime think to share with the newly acquired PP knowledge.

Sorry Stu for hijacking your thread.

[Marc Mol]

A cracking good image Stu, :cheers:

love the low head on impact and minimalist view here, Steve's RP has taken this up a notch, but would have kept the blue in the sky for mine.

TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like as presented, I see what Steve has done and the hare does look a little more detailed. Well done Steve I am a little torn over the blue malarkey I think I like it blue and you have some shadows on the RHS , I wonder if you could encourage similar circumstance on the LHS to frame the leveret?

[Stuart Philpott]

Funny that,............... the last person that derailed one of my threads...got eaten by a tiger:5

Ahh Haseeb,you are this far off guy in this far off place that shares images of his home and places and an animal that I've wondered on and known of since my childhood, please forgive me. It would be the biggest honour to be besides you for that image. Plus I sort of reckon i'll be faster over the first 20 yards,so I wouldn't be fearful either:bg3: Mate you don't ever need to apologise to me

Thanks for the comments folks very kind but as always it's your honesty i've always cherished.

Steve, I am unsure on the blue ,pretty much adore all else about the repost can you give me something very basic colour wise maybe WB where am I wrong buddy ,i'll gladly shoot you a RAW,it's such a shame that I start in DPP at times. Steve, I got a bucketful of images here . My biggest joy from your comments is the fact I knew I wanted more DOF ie f8 as a start I'd have yearned for something like f13 for the last frame or two : little fella was so close I can't believe the camera could focus but it did.

I had time to ponder techs Steve I chose 5.6 because of SS worries. My 1/1000 choice last hare frame raised comments with regard to too slow, so I tried to keep that a bit higher as my start point.( I wanted 1/2500 as a start but what can ya do?) I'm not fearful of pushing iso Steve you got to me so early there is no fear. I just am so poor at post I worry on how far I can recover the really high iso images . That's why I stayed at iso 6400

I sharpened with that same .2 radius in ps I felt the image was getting crunchy when I went further but your looks fine from what I can see.. here . I honestly felt the DOF harmed the frame ,that the ears are not sharp enough .

cheers all

[Stuart Philpott]

I like as presented, I see what Steve has done and the hare does look a little more detailed. Well done Steve I am a little torn over the blue malarkey I think I like it blue and you have some shadows on the RHS , I wonder if you could encourage similar circumstance on the LHS to frame the leveret?


the last bit is interesting Jon I sort of feel I should be in a postition to make that framed image suing veggies or suchlike, rather than use other means, ie post by the same token like the thoughts behind it:S3:. After staring a while it was really grey,sadly.... but I'll keep those blues

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, all done in LR, no fancy stuff added. Here is a version with the blue added back in (albeit a tad warmer because the WB went up a little) and a tad more oomph.

The hard thing is, is that the changes are to a JPEG not the Raw and so how much any details changes made are, I'm not sure. Will drop you a line over the weekend, just shoehorning stuff in currently.


My biggest joy from your comments is the fact I knew I wanted more DOF ie f8 as a start I'd have yearned for something like f13 for the last frame or two : little fella was so close I can't believe the camera could focus but it did.

Stu, unless you live in Florida, with our climate you will struggle unless you get good light to keep DoF required, SS high and low ISO. The cases have to be set, ditto the techs for when the subjects bolts and the camera/lens works harder the closer the subjects gets, especially head on, but no need for 12-14 fps, ten should do to give the camera time for the AF, plus do you want 350 frames in X seconds?

If the image is exposed well and you expose for the subject, not the BKG you will be fine, if it blows then it blows, but you have at least a stop to play with and it's better to darken than to lighten.

Cheers
Steve

[Stuart Philpott]

Steve thanks for this especially the bit about UK light and techs. I haven't traveled as you know, so can't compare the light I see in images from far off places......... but the techs used in those images have been nagging me for a long time. you have sort of comfirmed what I felt Steve ....does that make sense. Buddy no rush on my account,i'm slower than a slow thing anyway Huge thanks for the second repost Steve. That oomph you speak of is often something I feel lacking especially in these higher iso/ lower light images I make.

Many many thanks,I'm hoping we might get to see it again later if conditions are not too hairy, although the quest for good light might be a challenge:bg3:

cheers

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stu, if you lived closer I would be happy to do a day's one 2 one to get you up to speed, but you are a grafter and when you consider where you were this time last year to now, you are light years ahead. PP is the easy part and can be learnt over time, some elements quicker than others, but getting out there and exploring what does & doesn't work when shooting will put you in a good position because you know from experience. As I keep saying, practice on getting the exposure right, but i will get you to change something in camera, but you have to REMEBER the change, otherwise it will bite you in the rear big time, but it's one advantage Canon has over Nikon. :bg3:


If you can, try doing your PP work in the dark without any lights, you may find rendering colour, exposure etc far better. The only light I have when I work is from the two monitors both with hoods, in that way all i see is the image without any distracting light and then when printing I use daylight bulbs to view the prints. You may feel like a Mole after a few hours, but then you may find it helps????



Many many thanks,I'm hoping we might get to see it again later if conditions are not too hairy, although the quest for good light might be a challenge

The quest for light is always the 'Wholly Grail' for all of us, but sadly we have to work with what we have and you do have some excellent too to help you out.

I will be see the changes when I'm back. :bg3:

[Jonathan Ashton]

Last repost does it for me!

[Stuart Philpott]

Jon me too !!

Steve lovely words cheers,buddy understand about the relevence of ambient light when editing,it applies to painting as well. I don't think it's that buddy it's me ,i'm getting closer but still not nailing it. Oh cheers for the mail.

Steve,You said above I had roughly a stop more to play with light wise: is it possible to give me the set of techs I should have been using for this image?? what i'm trying to get my head around is how they could have been improved how I could squeeze a bit more out of the grey basically at capture?

Buddy I knew I wanted something more here techs wise especially DOF sure a bit more SS, but what has struck me is even though i had time to think ,i still didn't quite get there. I shoot so much in this type of light it Steve I need to nail the techs in these situations I don't feel i'm doing that.

A great help bro thank you:5

PS offer(1on1 ) noted.........I can't find a day for me at the moment buddy sadly,but maybe one day it won't be like that................ cheers for the thought though tis that what counts :c3:

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve,You said above I had roughly a stop more to play with light wise: is it possible to give me the set of techs I should have been using for this image?? what i'm trying to get my head around is how they could have been improved how I could squeeze a bit more out of the grey basically at capture?

OK, if you have under exposed then you could find that just by opening up the exposure within or around a stop you are 'ok' but it depends on many variables like ISO, darks & lights etc, it's just trying to avoid highlighting the noise in the shadows, but as I said, it all depends on the image. When they launch the MKII they took a file (and this is from memory) they then ramped up both HL's & Shadows and folk were amazed in the detail that there was, but don't go there!!! All I'm suggesting is that not all is lost a times, but best to always achieve a good exposure where you can.


Buddy I knew I wanted something more here techs wise especially DOF sure a bit more SS, but what has struck me is even though i had time to think ,i still didn't quite get there. I shoot so much in this type of light it Steve I need to nail the techs in these situations I don't feel i'm doing that.

Stu, it will come, as I said it's like driving a car, chaos at first, then it all falls into place, the harder you push it, the longer it will take, just relax, quietly think about what may happen, you have that skill, and set accordingly. Yes SS might be high, however it was there if the subject bolted and just see if changing a few elements helps, if not revert back.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Stu .... yeah this is a very nice and strong capture , specially when it comes to this species . Your patience and fieldcraft really paid off here !!!!!
Love it !!!! Brilliant work :5:5:5

Your OP just needs some little tweaking ...and you are there , IMHO .

Enjoyed watching it very much .

TFS Andreas

[Alex Becker]

Late to the party but great capture Stu. Some nice RPs to help bring the file out even more. Love the action detail and low POV, all really top notch. Btw, Stu, I think I may have missed a PM from you -- my inbox was full, but I can't find a message now after clearing? TFS

[Stuart Philpott]

Never as late as me Alex even my own party. Thanks for the kind words,I'm enchanted by them especially the youngsters. I really like Steve's second repost

Yup I replied to the pm got blocked and life steps in. My apologies . They are good pads Alex a bit tight but fantastic for me my whole arm is protected from back of hand to top of elbow and the exterior is soft.. so .no noise on the scree.. This very image was made in relative comfort due to these pads Alex, the more I use the more I love them,bit tight I repeat !! They have made images like this a joy to try for .

Andreas that's a VERY kind comment from you ............. especially you . Ahh buddy the little thing was just so perfect. I want to have another go at the processing

i'm starting to learn how to use this low pov where I need to be relative to my subject and BKG ......... to work with the lie of the land...it's contours and the veggies,it's a different world down there!!

Andreas hares are incredibly curious but they need time in our presence to relax. The little ones can come so fast it's startling .I'm lucky these hares are not hunted (ok there are always problems with poaching here)... but some of them must know me by now The the leverets can't know me at first. This inate , very curious nature that is in all of them fascinates me..... they should run away

When one is incredibly gentle in approach and gives them that time they become different beings.

Cheers both