Useless Lamb

[Alfred Forns]

Cute little guys but there are called "useless lambs" by my friend Mike Robinson :) The blood on the nose seems to be from foraging for shrubs .. ground frozen !! These guys come down from the mountain top to graze and back up at the end of the day !!

... btw I have looked at the color every which way and that is what we have for color in the sage during a winter dull day !!

Comments welcome and much appreciated

Canon 500 f4.0 IS
f 5.0 1/500 sec
Av +1/3
ISO 800

[David Thomasson]

Why "useless"??? In any case, it's far from a useless image, Al. Very nice portrait. Excellent details in the fur. I only wonder
about the blue cast. I rather like it and would be happy to keep it; I only wonder what accounts for it, and whether the
version on the right is close to actual colors.

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/3877/lamb2.jpg

[Alfred Forns]

Hi David I did just that with one of my vesions, does look good but nothing like the sage looked, all the images from that day look about the same? Imagine warming up a bit does look more natural without a reference point

..... btw could you post again what you did with the dropper in curves dropping the levels to 245?

The useless part comes from Mike, these guys are getting in front of the actin when your photographing the big males butting heads :) .. come up with a great shot except that a "useless lamb" gets in the way !!!! :D .. love these little guys and can't wait to see them again !!

btw if you leave your carp open they will drift over and stick their heads in :eek::)

[David Thomasson]

..... btw could you post again what you did with the dropper in curves dropping the levels to 245?

Sure. 1) double-click the white dropper to bring up the color picker. 2) click in the percentage (Brightness) box and use
the up and down arrow keys to adjust. As the percentage changes, the three RGB values below will change simultaneously.

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3465/dropper.jpg

I use 242.242.242, but experiment and see what works best for you. When setting white point in fur or
feathers, I avoid the default 255.255.255 because that is pure white and will wipe out subtle details.

[Alfred Forns]

... big thanks David !!! :) Had forgotten how to bring that up !!!

[Alfred Forns]

Works like a charm David :)

Was thinking for strange looking scenes maybe its best not to keep as seen since no one has a reference and will always look odd !! Next time I go out there will shoot a gray card just for curiosity !!!

[David Thomasson]

Works like a charm David :)

Was thinking for strange looking scenes maybe its best not to keep as seen since no one has a reference and will always look odd !! Next time I go out there will shoot a gray card just for curiosity !!!

I kinda like the original post ... it looks cold! But I almost always play around with color balance just to see what I can see.

[Alfred Forns]

... actually it was around -20F :)

[David Thomasson]

... actually it was around -20F :)

Yikes!! :eek: That ain't Miami, Toto!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Al

Looking at the two side by side I really am not sure which one I like:confused: Both have different qualities in their own rights.

Al I do think there should be a 'masterclass' section where David perhaps can impart some of his skills and nuggets of knowledge, a real asset!

TFS to you both
Steve ;)

[Alfred Forns]

... Steve anytime he re posts one I have a basic sensory overload :) .. people would do well by paying close attention !!!!

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Al, i like both, the first sounds like the real deal though! Man, i need to reread David's post wow, this is complex for me right now!
don

[David Thomasson]

I appreciate the kind words, but there were really no exotics tricks here, just the three droppers in curves.


The first white point was on the brightest neutral at the tip of the ear. (You hold the alt/opt key and drag in the highlight slider to find that point.)
That didn't change much, so I looked for an almost neutral tone a little darker, and found one further down the ear. I adjusted the white dropper settings to the middle value at that point. Example: If that spot had RGB values of 202.196.211, then I would set the dropper at 202.202.202..
Black dropper on the nose. (I use 10.10.10 for black point so as not to block shadow details.)
Gray dropper somewhere in that circled area. I moved the cursor around and watched the Info panel, looking for a tone that had one RGB value fairly close to 128 (because the gray dropper defaults to 128.128.128).

Holler if you have any questions.

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/5965/lamb.gif

[Jamie Strickland]

I laughed even before I opened the post because I heard that saying from Mike as well and thought it was hilarious

Cute little ones even if it's useless

[Harshad Barve]

Mighty fine thread and IMHO deserves place in ER section
TFS image and TFS techie part too