Brown bear (Ursus arctos)

[Bretoteanu Dan]

Hy, I'm posting the picture of a brown bear which has caught my and my friend's scent. It was a sight to behold to watch him run up and across the mountain side, like a tank traversing some very rough terrain. Taken with 1DX and 100-400 mk II with 1.4 XIII TC at f9 1/200 ISO 1600 EC +1 in manual mode spot metered on the bear (was trying out this mode). Techs were less then ideal, 560 mm at f9 gave little SS, the weather was cloudy, but thats what I have s far as my kit goes.
In DPP 4.12 I tried different adjustments but nothing seemed to work so I decided to underexpose by -0.67 because the bear was overexposed (his left ear showed up red), I lowered the blue saturation by -1 and set the WB to daylight. I left NR at the standard value of 3. In CS 6 I placed the bear on a layer, and increased the exposure on the BG layer by+o.5, I used curves on the BG layer and increased saturation by 10. I used USM on the bear, at first at 130%, but then I lowered it to 60. Its a big crop from the original, but I cant say the percentage.
The bear is not baited, its just a wild bear which was grazing on a mountain side till the wind gave us away. Not exactly a masterpiece in terms of how big he is in the frame, but thats how close I cand get with my kit without getting the bear and me in trouble. Opened to advice especially how should I have handled the exposure (should I have used evaluative metering, given that the bear is small in the frame).

[haseeb badar]

Hi Dan -- I love images showing animals environment , and this what your image consists off.

Really like the settings and the scampering Bear amongst the settings.

I think you have done well considering the opportunity you had.

I enjoyed viewing this one, TFS !

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A good sighting Dan, I like the wide framing and the terrain. I would have gone for evaluative metering here. Though the bear is kinda lost in the frame, it still keeps our interest here.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Dan I never use spot metering I always meter for the scene and then decide if the subject is darker or lighter and I use the highlights shadows indicators on the camera to make sure nothing is blown. Chances are average metering or average +1/3 stop would have been close enough, your 1DX is good for a great deal higher than ISO 1600 - trust me I used to own one! I quite like the scenic quality of the image, I feel it could do with a little "pop" though.

[Bretoteanu Dan]

Thank you for your thoghts Haseeb and Sanjeev. I guess spot metering is usefull when your subject is large in the frame, like in your last image of a tiger Sanjeev, and not when trying a wildscape, like I did.
Thank you for your advice John, oddly before the shot i used spot metering on a patch of snow on the mountainside the bear was and the exposure was ok. Regarding the "pop", I did used curves on the BG layer, but I dont want to darken the image too much, so I feel I am at a dead end. Maybe you could take your time and play around with the image, but if you could explain as well what did you do, should you decide so. Kinda still not getting the hang of curves yet.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dan ... I quite like the base image .
Nice showing of the bear environment .
As presented it does not grab me in terms of color and tone .... this kind of shot requires more work , IMHO , to make it look pleasing .

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Dan, I like the idea, but it's not quite working, albeit it's nice and in many ways a change to see a subject small in frame and being more 'habitat' inclusive. F/9 is to me wasted, go to f/5.6, but with the 1.4 it boosts it to f/8 I think, so not much more you could do... With the 1DX don't fall into the trap that so many folk do, bump your ISO up and if well exposed noise isn't an issue here so say ISO3200 and gain a tad more SS.

Overall for me the image is off in colour, to blue, cold, getting some more warmth back in with a better WB helps, then just some simple Curves adjustments willh bolster the tonal range.

The attached is just based on my thinking, surprised some folk haven't chimed in with a RP, oh well...

Hope to see more.

Cheers
Steve

[Bretoteanu Dan]

Wow Steve, as usual your RP is way better then my post:) With the 1.4 I have to stop down to f9 to get good results, f8 doesnt work. I like the colors, the way you brought back the greens. Could you please try and describe what did you do in your repost? I just dont get WB as of yet. How did you set the WB? In DPP I tried all the presets, even tried click WB but nothing worked. With a shot like this, when the subject is small in the frame, evaluative metering works better than spot? How would you have handled the exposure ( I mean with a scene like this how would you have taken the shot?)

[Steve Kaluski]

Dan, agree, attaching the 1.4 to the 100-400 and jumping up on the DoF isn't ideal, but it is what it is.

I always to to find a mid grey point, not sure how you do it in DPP and I still think you should jump ship and move to LR and upgrade PS. The greens I just toggle in the HSL panel which you have in DPP, but with LR & PS you can be more 'selective' compared to DPP. Stick to Evaluated metering and don't change it. I would just get the exposure right, then in the raw process how I think it should look, then tweak in PS as I never let the camera dictate the look ie via Picture styles, but that's just me.