Don't Move! I am watching you.

[Tommy Rodgers]

1D Mark IV, 500mm f/4, 1/500, f/8. ISO 800, 1/3 EV, Aperture Priority, 8pm, July 10, 2011. Tripod. Small crop for composition. Noise reduction and tonal work in Lightroom. Alaskan Coastal Brown Bear accompanied by cubs (not in this image). I was amazed at how close we could get to the bears. Trusty bear guide Rick was always close at hand; otherwise, tripod and IS couldn't have handled the hand shake.:S3: Lake Clark National Park, Cook Inlet.

[Hilary Hann]

Really like the the droopy bottom lip with grass stalks. The eyes can be seen well and I love the detail and colour of the hair. I personally think there is too much space at the top, but understand that some people don't like square crops and realise that if you crop down from the top you will end up squarish unless you have some space at the bottom. Some might like to see the dark shadow under the jaw opened up, but not if it goes 'mushy grey'. I like the power in this image, really draws me in.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Good to see you posting in the wildlife forum, Tommy...:bg3:
Wonderful mood here, great expression. I would love to see a repost with a crop from the top as I feel this needs to go tighter. I would also tone down overall highlights on the bear. Shout if you need advice on how to (everyone has their own methods)...

[Grady Weed]

I really love the look in its eyes here. It says "I ate too much!" The eyes are very visible, which is important, and the coloration or tones are fine to me, a bit warm but OK. As to the crop, as Hillary says, a matter of taste. Nice image.

[Tommy Rodgers]

Repost it crop and some adjustment of the tone. Thanks all for the critiques. Morkel, I am not sure if I understand what you advised. First, I am new to digital and have been working mainly in Lightroom. I am venturing more and more into Photoshop, so I would be interested in your method for corrected tonality.

[Robert Amoruso]

Tommy,

I teach my students at my Lake Clark workshops to push highlights to the point of clipping. This increase shadow details. In post using ACR (Photoshop), use the recovery slider to tame the highlights. However, that is not the whole story. I next do the following:

1) Create BG copy.
2) Switch to Channels Palette.
3) Double click on RGB channel - this creates a selection of highlights.
4) Switch back to Layers Palette.
5) Click on the "create mask" icon on the bottom of the layers palette - this creates a gray-scale mask of the image.
6) Change blending mode to Multiply - this multiples the pixel's color by itself thereby darkening the pixels. Bright pixels get darkened more sine the mask is not protecting them as much as the shadows.
7) You can change opacity of the layer to suit you taste.

In the repost I left opacity at 100%,

[Rachel Hollander]

Great pose with open mouth and nice to see the eyes clearly. I prefer the comp of the repost and Robert's treatment is an improvement. I'll benefit from Robert's step by step as well. Looking forward to seeing more from your trip.

TFS,
Rachel

[Hilary Hann]

I don't know bear colours, but I like Robert's repost for getting detail and improving the tonal range. Thanks for the mini tutorial as well.

[Morkel Erasmus]

No problem, Tommy...usually when I make suggestions I like to post a repost but when critiquing your image I was semi on-the-run :e3

I am glad Robert gave you a detailed run-down of the way to handle the highlights. I used your first repost as a baseline here...remember this is only how I see it and is not the 'correct' way :tinysmile_shy_t:

I understand that being new-ish to Photoshop can be daunting, so please shout if I am not making sense in these steps explained:

1. I ran Robert's action and set the blended highlights layer opacity to 50%.
2. I used the "Burn" tool, set to "Highlights, 15%" to burn some of the brightest fur around the head/ears and back.
3. I then felt it needed some contrast so ran the Unsharp Mask tool at 20%, 10pixels to add some punch.
4. Lastly, I wanted to increase the blacks just a tad so I went to "Seletive Color" and then adjusted the Blacks in the Black channel up by 3 points and the Blacks in the Neutral channel up by 4 points. This caused the nose and muzzle to become too dark and lose detail, so I undid, selected the nosetip, inverted selection and redid this last step (thereby excluding the nose area from the adjustment).

Again - my vision/opinion and I tend to like contrast and 'oomph' a bit more than the next guy :c3:. Also, this was done on a non-calibrated laptop monitor so it won't be entirely 'there' but will show you what is possible in any case...

Let me know what you think.

[Tommy Rodgers]

Robert and Morkel: Thanks isn't enough. You guys are great. I will spend a lot time on both procedures and see what I can do. As said, i am not a good photoshop guy yet. But with everyone help, I will get there. I have some more bears that I will post after I practice a bit. Again, thank you very much for showing me the way.

Best regards,

[Steve Canuel]

Nice light on the eyes here and I like the slight head turn. The tighter crop works better for me.

[Stan Cunningham]

I agree with both Robert's and Morkel's comments, as I learned the methods from their comments on mine, but their posts the bear is too dark. I'm not sure but that looks like a "standard blond female". I'd follow either of their suggestions and reduce the opacity.
If you are new to Photoshop like I am, all those steps can be intimidating, but it I can learn it, you can. If you just are using lightroom, then your only choice that I know of is to reduce the highlights slider on the tone curve under develop. Handy but not as powerful as what they are suggesting.
And all the guides at Silver Salmon are good in my opinion, don't want Ric to get a big head.
Stan

[Tommy Rodgers]

Stan: Thanks for the encouraging words. Photoshop is intimidating, but I am struggling forward. Guys like Robert and Morkel really give you a push up the learning curve, and I appreciate everyone's help. In less than a year, BNP has made more difference in my photography than all the books I have read put together. Thanks again everyone.

[Stan Cunningham]

I feel the same way Tommy. Art's Digital Basics that he sells on his website (cd) is very helpful as well with photoshop. I had to play around for a while before I understood parts of it, but I keep it right by the computer now.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Robert and Morkel: Thanks isn't enough. You guys are great. I will spend a lot time on both procedures and see what I can do. As said, i am not a good photoshop guy yet. But with everyone help, I will get there. I have some more bears that I will post after I practice a bit. Again, thank you very much for showing me the way.

Best regards,

A pleasure. If you need help, just ask! Even via PM if you must :w3

[Morkel Erasmus]

I agree with both Robert's and Morkel's comments, as I learned the methods from their comments on mine, but their posts the bear is too dark. I'm not sure but that looks like a "standard blond female". I'd follow either of their suggestions and reduce the opacity.


Stan...having never seen a bear in real life it's a big possibility that I can get the colours/brightness of their fur way wrong...:e3...but the beauty of these steps is you can adjust them to taste so they best fit your artistic vision, whether that is to boost contrast or to portray it as accurately as you remember it :bg3: