Black Bear

[John Mack]

This image was created in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on 12/5/19 at 8:39AM. Image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hand held, Small crop.

Canon 5D MarkIV
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
435mm
ISO 4000
f6.3
1/320sec

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

The Bear looks huge John, I like the alert pose and angle of the bear on the slope. You could have gone with 6400 and up that SS a bit. Was this with a bean bag?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi John, nice to see a different subject from you.

John the image is still carrying a lot of the old issues for me, however was the image under exposed? There is a lot of blue within the image, it's quite noisy in the fur hence asking if the image was under exposed. The BKG could also do with some NR. For me the framing needs more below and the frosty grass needs more tonal depth ie darker - again you can do this within LR. I would crop out the tree stump on the RHS, plus the lighter branch needs either toning down and or removed, its distracting. Again, moving quietly and slowly to the left may have offered a better perspective, I feel you would have had time. Would agree with Sanjeev about going to 6400 for some more SS as I think there may also be some camera shake, subject isn't pin sharp.

TFS
Steve

[John Mack]

Was this with a bean bag? No. Held held kneeling on the ground.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi John ... a happy new year to you .

Good to see something different from you , i do like bears a lot ... have to travel far to see one of them .
I do like the image in terms image design,as the subject is separated nicely and no major distracting elements . Nice pose of the bear and the exp looks spot on to me .
I do agree with Steve about the IQ and the color issues .

Keep the bears coming ...

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi John -- I really like this image because of the subject, looks big and nicely separated.

I can see a bit of noise , not usual for a 5D MK IV. Not ideal settings as far as the tree is concerned but again you could nt have done anything unless the subject moved to a different setting.

I enjoyed viewing this one.

TFS !

[Jonathan Ashton]

John I am working down the list of images so some of the comments I mad on your most recent post I would say apply to this one also. I see Steve had similar thoughts regarding exposure and noise too. These are pretty unusual images on the forum, I think they are worth having another looksee to see what you can get out of them.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello John,

Haven't seen a Black Bear in our Forum for some time so very happy to see you shared this:S3: POV is great, I like the positioning of the subject in the frame as well as pose, also those small but penetrating eyes:w3

Having read the comments above I would like to avoid repeating what has already been said... but it's not easy. I too feel this frame is worth another look and would start by finding the correct WB. Would then remove the blues to some extent on bear as well as FG, clean up the BG a bit and apply another round of NR.

The little stump in the bottom right corner needs to go, and those lighter branches toned down a little. Overall I really like the image and I think it has great potential, just needs a bit more work:w3

Many thanks for sharing John, always a pleasure to view your images - keep them coming!

Kind regards,