Patchwork Bear

[Rachel Hollander]

This youngster is maturing and as he does so his fur becomes darker but mid-process he looks like a patchwork doll or a calico cat. Taken at Brooks in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

Canon 50D
300 f2.8 with 2x
1/1000
f 5.6
ISO 200
Tripod on platform, cropped. The catchlight is real :).


C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Rachel Hollander]

Not sure why but this image suffered in the conversion to save for web. I could only save it for web at 38% quality.

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent pose and nice BG too ,
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

Can you do a repost ,you have the width set to 800 rather than 1024, do you use fit image in your saving for web process?

If you have it a little more space on RHS would help a lot.

[Marc Mol]

Nice pose Rachel, although the light looks somewhat harsh? Perhaps reduce exposure a tad.
TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Rachel, I think this is the best of the bunch so far. Like the bear coming out of the bush. Would suggest a slight CW rotation, but need to ensure the bear does not look as if he is falling over, plus it might take a slight crop above & to the rhs. Making it a little tighter so he/she is looking in to the lhs?

Quality - What size are you reducing your image from when you going to create your web image? Have you tried following my suggestions on Save for web? Whether you wish to post 1024 or 800 this will not alter the quality and the image will not suffer.

TFS
Steve ;)

[Steve Kaluski]

Rachel, meant to say, drop me (email) an A4 or something similar in size and crop as your image and I will take a look. 300 dpi RGB so I am almost working from your file for when you convert.

Steve

[Alfred Forns]

Just softer light would make it better Rachel Might give the face another round of sharpening ... btw take up Steve on his suggestion !!! how you upload makes a huge difference !!

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to more sharpness issues with the bear and yes to some CW rotation. Curious posture is nice.

[Hilary Hann]

Rachel, I really like the composition and pose of this interesting bear. Agree with Steve on a slight crop to rhs and Al's suggestion to sharpen face.

I follow Steve's 'save for web' instructions and would echo suggestions to follow his excellent advice and help. BTW, I also think this is one of your best bears to date, really nice image. (experimenting with the post icons … haven't used them before)

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everybody for the kind comments. Both Steve and Ken have been great in offering suggestions and assistance today. Still trying to work through the issue and may be that I have to upgrade from PSE to CS5.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Rachel Hollander]

Here's a repost with more sharpening, darkened a little and some cw rotation. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Hilary Hann]

IQ looks better, have you posted it FF now?

Fine like this but would still (personally) crop from the rhs, top and bottom to give the bear more strength in the image. Losing that bare ground in the foreground would add to the photo, but only my opinion. Very nice as it is presented.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hilary - thanks. Not FF but I guess I didn't go far enough with the crop. Here's another repost with the suggested crop (hopefully).

Thanks again all,
Rachel

[Hilary Hann]

Rachel, like that crop better. You should be very pleased with this photograph.:)

[Marc Mol]

Repost is much more effective Rachel, only thing I'd change is to crop to a 6x4 ratio rather than 5x4 you have here.

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

Getting an image on here that reflects your original is someting that eludes me constantly, others seem to have it down to a fine art;)

The crop is much better but I agree with Marc on the ratio setting. Is the quality up on this?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everybody. Marc and Ken - I'll look at the ratio. Ken - quality is still only at around 40 percent. PSE does not have a fit image function as far as I can tell.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Stu Bowie]

Rachel, your final comp works so well, and what a great sighting to see this huge bear walk out from the bushes. An animal I would still like to see in real life.