Wild Dog on Guard

[Rachel Hollander]

Taken in the Sabi Sands, South Africa. This was one of 9 adults in the pack and they had 3 pups.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/500
f8
ISO 400
Handheld from a safari vehicle, slight crop from the RHS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent looks on face of WD , busy BG showing how they get camo and nice light too, excellent
TFS

[Hilary Hann]

I like the environmental aspect of the image but find the rock a little too distracting as my eye is drawn to the light colour of it. It is quite big. I am also finding the head of the dog not truly sharp but the grass in the foreground does look sharp so I wonder if the focus was just a tad front focussed. I stand to be corrected of course, but that is how it looks to me. Perhaps another round of selective sharpening might help.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Rachel,
I agree with Hilary that the face doesn't look sharp. You can check the critical focus in zoombrowser or DPP. It would be better to crop from the joints. Its a treat to watch wild dogs. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel

Would have cropped in tight on this as, the truncated body & legs aren't really working, or adding the the image. Agree the face isn't sharp, but then it might just need some tweaking. I would go back to DPP to review and check where the FP was, Ctrl J. Also you are at full zoom with this lens which can also add to slight quality loss (?). Would have dropped to f/5.6 giving added SS and helped the BG too.

An example which might help?:)
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=54667

TFS
Steve ;)

[Alfred Forns]

Two big points here are the rock and crop !! Just an odd crop Maybe waited for the animal to be position a bit different or with more focal length going even tighter !!

... btw this lens is capable of sharp images wide open It does have a bad reputation for sharpness and AF speed but have to disagree on both counts. Rely on this one heavily !!

[Steve Kaluski]

It does have a bad reputation for sharpness and AF speed but have to disagree on both counts.

Can I have your one al please. :D Should dig out mine & give it a whirl, especially as the bears are coming up. ;)

[Rachel Hollander]

I checked the AF point in DPP and it is just below the eye. Unfortunately, it's operator error. I found the dogs one of the most difficult to photograph because unless the light was hitting it the right way, the eye and face were very dark and I found focusing on the eye difficult. This was one of the few times one of the dogs moved out of the shade but I still had to lighten the eye in PP. Unfortunately I also had no more reach. I'll see what happens if I crop and do some more selective sharpening. I agree with Al that the 100-400 is a good lens.

Thanks for the comments,

Rachel

[Alfred Forns]

Steve do dust it off and take with you ... its the first thing that goes in the bag. Would just check with a target so you can be confident !

[Rachel Hollander]

Here's a repost. I applied selective sharpening to the face and found that a square crop let me eliminate most of the rock and bring it in to the shoulder. Let me know if this works better. Thanks,

Rachel

[Hilary Hann]

This works much better for me. I don't have a problem with square crops.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Hilary.

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve do dust it off and take with you ...

Al ALL gear is going back to Canon for a 'wash & brush up' so no dust bunnies, wiil get them to check it & calibrate if required. ;)


Rachel, or perhaps...

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - Thanks, I had wanted to keep some of the interesting color pattern from near the shoulder but your crop works better I think.

Rachel