Young Whitetail at Sunrise

[Danny J Brown]

I've been following BPN for the last few years and I've finally decided to join in on the excitement and start posting some photos. I photograph birds and wildlife, mostly in Missouri where I live and work as a biologist with the state conservation department. Attached is an image I made at our farm this morning as a young buck stepped out in front of an oak tree in autumnal color.

Canon 40D; Canon 500 F4 L; 1/80; F4; ISO 400; EC +2/3; Gitzo GT3530LS; Wimberley II

[Marc Mol]

Nice compositional image here Danny and welcome to BPN!
A few things to consider, the BG is a little overpowering and needs to be toned down, the Deer also is too centered in the frame and should be positioned slightly left, and also if your ethics allow, to remove the grass on the neck.

[Harshad Barve]

Big warm welcome to BPN , nice advise above , adding to that I may warm up deer a bit
TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Welcome to BPN Danny, and a great image as introduction. Good advice from Marc, and I would add to maybe sharpen the deer a little more. Keep them coming.

[Danny J Brown]

Marc, Harshad and Stuart, Thanks for the instructive comments. I tend to frame images off center but sometimes I don't for portraits. I rarely ever remove nature's annoyances from my photos but its not an ethical thing - just my preference. I'll keep practicing on finding the right sharpness for a compressed photo like this. I have a fear of oversharpening! Thanks again and I look forward to hearing more from you guys and working up the nerve to provide a few comments myself.

[David Fletcher]

Another warm welcome to BPN Danny. Some good advice given to help enhance your fine shot. Re sharpening, just for the record, I never sharpen the original, only the output image: (in this case, the web image), and generally for nature, only the subject. My own preference oft being a new layer and smart sharpen, and if a tad too heavy, will reduce opacity to the required level... easier than starting again).

[Danny J Brown]

Thanks David. I took the compressed image back into Lightroom and started incrementally sharpening it and stopped just as I could see it turning the corner. It looked much better when I reopened it in its compressed sizing. I'm not used to working with 200kb images but your tip has them looking better already.