Do Bears Eat Grass?

[Tommy Rodgers]

ID Mark IV, 500mm f/4, AP, 1/250, f/8, +1/3, ISO 400, 7/10 1940. Cropped abt 65%. Mowed some grass in front, lighten the eyes and worked on the contrast as suggested by this form.

I am slowly but surly venturing further into Photoshop while trying everyone's very helpful suggestions. Since my last post here, I have re-read Artie's digital basics twice. I think that makes a total of 4 times. Man, I am a slow learner.

This cub, mom, and siblings were busy munching on the grass. They do the cutest things. As if he was going to stay for a while, this character just squatted and began to taste each sprig. I have way to many cub pictures.:S3:

[Lorant Voros]

I don't think you can have way too many pictures of bear cubs :-). I like the image very much, especially the composition. I am on my laptop and I can't rely in the display too much, but colors and contrast look good to me. You might be a slow learner but you learn for sure. Very nice work.

Lorant

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Bears are known to feed on grass shoots and banboo shoots . Lovely image here , but I feel the critical focus is on the grass behind the bear . Colours look good on my monitor , but I would tone down the highlights a bit .

[Robert Amoruso]

Tommy,

Rakesh is correct, critical focus is behind the bear. IF you are using all AF points to focus, try selecting a singular point and place it on the eye. This will help you to obtain sharp focus on the face.

With bears I will make a selection of the eyes only, lighten them up of PS using a curves adjustment and then selectively sharpen them. Makes a huge difference in the look of the image.

[Tommy Rodgers]

Thanks for the suggestions. I do agree the critical focus appears to be on the grass. I use single point AF, usually placing that AF point in a position within the viewfinder that gives the best composition for the subject. I do not think I had the AF point on the grass, but who knows. I remember there was lots of action with the three cubs and mom. I switched from subject to subject so perhaps in my excitement the AF point slipped off the bear's head. I will probably never be a calm, cool photographer. I like it too much and get too excited when things get good. Thanks for the tip on the eyes. I am working a couple of other bear images, so I will give it a try and see what you think in a day or two.

[Morkel Erasmus]

The main points covered already here Tommy...
Crop-wise I would chop some off the RHS, but I tend to stay away from square crops personally so yeah :Whoa!: