Black Bear

[Rachel Hollander]

I thought I'd add a black bear to the recent mix of animals posted. This collared and tagged black bear was foraging for berries below us and the road last summer near Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. I know the bg is not the best, a little bare (pun intended).

Canon 7D
100-400 @ 190mm
1/320
f5.6
ISO 800
HH, full frame, luminosity mask, levels, slight s/h, reduced the blues in the bear, sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Marina Scarr]

Love the pun, and the wildflowers. Nicely exposed and great details.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, your PP is, as quoted from today, ROCKs.

Agree perhaps the BKG could do with a hint more punch, but am away and viewing on MacBook so will leave it with you. Did you apply any USM to the BKG? Wonder if the bear (only) could do with a drop in Red? Certainly compared to the OP a while back, 'it's one small step for you, one giant leap for your processing.'

TFS
Steve

[Grady Weed]

Rachel, How about a tighter crop to lessen the background some. Have you tried to clone out the tag in the ear? Other than that, I say nice image.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Marina, Steve and Grady. Steve - I used the sharpening action posted by Morkel which applies sharpening to the entire image. You may be right about the reds although this bear had some red in his fur. Grady - I think sometimes it is important to show the tags. If I'm not mistaken there's an effort in the Banff/Jasper area to tag all bears. If I were going to print the image, which I'm not because of the bg, I might clone the tag.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Nice detail in the bear and just the right amount of definition in the surroundings for me. Personal preference would be to go a little darker but this looks like it could easily match the conditions you describe.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely nincl of scene with good exp on the bear..>Nice image overall!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Fantastic clarity on the bear, Rachel - and for that matter on all your recent posts - well done :bg3:
BG not the best but I still think this works. Might get more 'implied separation' if you do a selective luminosity mask a la Robert on the BG only, toning it down some?


Thanks Marina, Steve and Grady. Steve - I used the sharpening action posted by Morkel which applies sharpening to the entire image. You may be right about the reds although this bear had some red in his fur. Grady - I think sometimes it is important to show the tags. If I'm not mistaken there's an effort in the Banff/Jasper area to tag all bears. If I were going to print the image, which I'm not because of the bg, I might clone the tag.

To my knowledge - and the way I have used the action - if you choose the correct 'version' of the action it should sharpen only the 'most in-focus' parts of the image. It does apply a minimal amount of sharpening to the BG but the mask it creates should show that most of it was applied to the bear...:e3

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve, Dumay and Morkel - much appreciated. Morkel - yes on the sharpening but I am finding on shots with wider apertures and hence more dof that it is necessary to drop the opacity a bit more.

Thanks again,
Rachel