Lake Clark Bears

[Katie Rupp]

This image is from last year's Alaska Bear tour with Dale Franz; looking forward to this year during salmon season. As I remember, we had mostly dreary, overcast and sometimes rainy days, hence, for me, an unusual shooting mode and high ISO. I am a newbie with black and white so I'm looking forward to suggestions for improvement. C&C encouraged and greatly appreciated! Now that it's posted it looks a bit oversharpened to me??

1dm3; f4, 1/1000; Tv, ISO 2500; 500f4
conversion to black and white with CS5

[Harshad Barve]

B & W is not a cup of tea for :t3 but I liked the settings here and conversion
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Katie - it's a cute shot and I like the comp. The highlights are a little too strong for my taste but I like the experimentation with b&w.

TFS,
Rachel

[Dumay de Boulle]

I quite like this actually...Feel the Hi-lites add to the contrast of the image. Detail looks good. Maybe less room on the right and more on the left? Nice one Katie!

[Vivaldo Damilano]

I like the mood in this image, do agree with overexposed highlights though. Very nice B&W Katie!

[peter delaney]

Katie,

absolutely a wonderful image,,... just my kind of image...lots of tonal range... contrast, form texture.. just a few minor tweeks and this will be a wonderful print...

I would darken the light areas in BKG.. bit of noise coming thru...
I would try and recover the whites on the ridge of bear..
try and bring out detail in the mid tones from shoulder thru to rump.. lots of nice texture there...

just pulled the blacks a little just to get some detail in nose and mouth area...
maybe a little more sharpening but only a little ,, you dont want the fur to have a frozen look...

well done again on great image and conversion !!

[Steve Kaluski]

Well Peter, you have certainly address the points, but I feel with your understanding of B/W you are perhaps one of the best people to comment on this image. I just wonder if the hi ISO is also playing a part in the detail too on this one?

Katie have you tried to print this big, ie 20 x 16? Be interesting to know how it looked.

Having the cub os a nice touch.

TFS
Steve

[Katie Rupp]

Thank you, Peter, for the helpful critique; I went back and worked on it again but I think I overdid it...looks oversharpened now and lost some of it's punch? I'll have to try again later as other tasks are calling!


Katie,

absolutely a wonderful image,,... just my kind of image...lots of tonal range... contrast, form texture.. just a few minor tweeks and this will be a wonderful print...

I would darken the light areas in BKG.. bit of noise coming thru...
I would try and recover the whites on the ridge of bear..
try and bring out detail in the mid tones from shoulder thru to rump.. lots of nice texture there...

just pulled the blacks a little just to get some detail in nose and mouth area...
maybe a little more sharpening but only a little ,, you dont want the fur to have a frozen look...

well done again on great image and conversion !!

[Katie Rupp]

Well Peter, you have certainly address the points, but I feel with your understanding of B/W you are perhaps one of the best people to comment on this image. I just wonder if the hi ISO is also playing a part in the detail too on this one?

Katie have you tried to print this big, ie 20 x 16? Be interesting to know how it looked.

Having the cub os a nice touch.

TFS
Steve

Thanks, Steve, and yes, I did print it (12x18) for camera club competition (end of July)and I am quite pleased with it so I look forward to that feedback as well.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Katie I think the main points have been well addressed. I love the tones, textures and feel here.
I would be most interested to see this in colour "straight-out-of-camera" to see how the ISO2500 held up on the 1Dmk3?

I also think that if you have the space some more on the LHS and a tad less on RHS would enhance overall compositon, given the directions that both mom and cub are looking into. :e3

[Michael Bertelsen]

Magnificent image Katie, should be a big seller, if you are planning on selling it that is.

Cheers,

Michael Bertelsen