Sockeye shake

[Stan Cunningham]

This is an image when the bear just comes out of the water and immediately shakes. They almost always do it but this was my best shot of the trip.
I had to crop it tighter than I would like due to a bear standing immediately behind him. I'm almost scared a viewer would not know what they are looking at in this image though.
So comments and critiques definitely appreciated.
Canon 5 D III, 500 F4, ISO 1600 F8 1/1250 M tripod on my knees in the water for perspective.
LR CS5 and Nik filters.
Thanks for looking

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Stan - this is one of those images that everyone tries to capture and I think you've done a great job with the eye visible and sharp. Was that happenstance or did you clone any splash out to have the eye in the clear? I agree with you that it might not be readily apparent as to what is happening here and might look like part of the overall struggle between bear and fish. Either way it is dramatic and I like the tight comp here. The reds in the salmon, particularly closer to the tail, look a little hot on my monitor and I would also consider dropping the saturation of the salmon slightly. Looks like you had a very productive trip.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Great action shot. I like the tight comp here as well. Agreed with Rachel regarding the saturation of the salmon. I saw a small smudge above the eye. Is it from cloning? Well done. Loi

[Dumay de Boulle]

Amazing sighting with great action that you captured nicely...I love how the red salmon pops from the mage!

[Brendon Cremer]

Stan i really like this a lot. everything looks great to me, agree that the salmon could do with a little desaturation more towards the tail but thats not a biggie, great action and drama very well captured, very well done.

[Stan Cunningham]

Thanks all, and yes I did remove a large drop of water just above the eye. The amount of water drops on my other similar images were too much for me. If I should have noted that, my apologies, and will do it in the future.
I will also take a look at adding some more cyan in the reds to reduce the color. A turned sockeye is bright bright red and I don't add any saturation or vibrance to them.
Thanks for the comments, they will improve the image as always.

[Arthur Morris]

Wow, That is one of the very best bear eating salmon images ever. By far. The sharpness on the eye and the red of the salmons are amazing. Add about 60-90 points of CYAN to the reds near the tail in Selective Color and you will have this one ready for the BBC contest.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all, and yes I did remove a large drop of water just above the eye. The amount of water drops on my other similar images were too much for me. If I should have noted that, my apologies, and will do it in the future.
I will also take a look at adding some more cyan in the reds to reduce the color. A turned sockeye is bright bright red and I don't add any saturation or vibrance to them.
Thanks for the comments, they will improve the image as always.

Now that I have gotten over my initial excitement over the image I have a few more comments. First, depending on the light and the camera you often need to desaturate or otherwise tweak the REDs or YELLOWs as they come right out of camera. Second, you brought up a considerable amount of noise by over-lightening or over-Detail Extracting the area around the eye. And if you do opt to enter this in the WPTOY contest, you will need to make a version with the drop near or over the eye....

All in all I still love it but feel that it can be better.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I love this! Great action, perfect SS for it, and good call on the crop. Rachel made some good points on colour/exposure.
How much did you have to crop? I.E. how many megapixels are left on the high res of this image?

[Stan Cunningham]

Morkel, I don't want to start a different type of thread I'm not sure how to determine that. I just cropped the orig and saved it as a tiff and it's 25 mb, 3 larger than the original so how do I determine what you are asking?
It's quite a crop, only 1900 x 1400 pixels so I would say it's only about 30% of the original, that help? I really didn't notice a loss of IQ even with that large of crop but if you did please let me know.
Thanks for the help.
Stan
Tried to send you a PM but your box is full.

[Stan Cunningham]

Art, thanks for such high praise, coming from you that means quite a bit. The next 2 days are crazy at work but I'm going to try and repost it with large water drop I removed to see what others and yourself think of it then.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. Let's make this simple. I too would love to see the full frame original. Can you get at the extracted JPEG???

[Stan Cunningham]

OK, going to embarrass myself again here, what do you mean the "extracted jpeg", meaning post the whole image?

[Arthur Morris]

Do you use BreezeBrowser?

[Steve Kaluski]

Second, you brought up a considerable amount of noise by over-lightening or over-Detail Extracting the area around the eye.

Hi Stan, I do feel this is one your best to date, however Artie has echoed what I have been saying recently to you. Taking on board what he has already mentioned, I would also watch your sharpening on the water, it's starting to look a little too crisp. By using your brush on a mask and using %s you can be quite specific in key areas.

Look forward to seeing the JPEG where we all can give further advice.

TFS
Steve

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Stan, love the action captured in this image...some great advice given above for tweaking. The white of the eye and the rounded motion blur of the water droplet make the image for me. Nice one!

[Anette Mossbacher]

Awesome shot Stan. Like it very much

[edwardselfe]

Fantastic image - just the right amount of sharpness vs motion blur. The salmon is astonishingly pink!
Ed

[Morkel Erasmus]

Stan, would also love to see a JPG of the uncropped file. Perhaps render a JPG of about 2400px wide and send to me and Steve and Artie and we can conjure up something incorporating a crop and processing steps for you to work from in future?

[Andrew Merwin]

Great action shot. I really like the water cascading off the salmon, the bear's visible eye & the water swirling around the bear's head dramatically show the action. Heeding the advice above will take this image up a notch or 2. TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Stan, Raw please as there would be too much information lost in the JPEG and I have only less than a week before flying out.

[Stan Cunningham]

Thanks for all the great comments and the offer of help. I'm teaching until late tonight but will try and get a jpeg posted. Steve, Art, and Morkel, I can create a dropbox for you all, is that the best?

[Morkel Erasmus]

Stan, Raw please as there would be too much information lost in the JPEG and I have only less than a week before flying out.

Yes RAW is best, wasn't sure if Stan would be comfortable with handing out the RAW file of a "winning shot"

Stan - dropbox works best!

[Stan Cunningham]

Can you PM me your email address Morkel so I can set it up?

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for all the great comments and the offer of help. I'm teaching until late tonight but will try and get a jpeg posted. Steve, Art, and Morkel, I can create a dropbox for you all, is that the best?

A dropbox with the RAW would be perfect along with an e-mail :).

[John Ippolito]

I love the image. with the sharp eye, and the colorful spawning sockeye. Addressing the color on the tail of the salmon will move it into high gear. Very well done here, Stan

[Stan Cunningham]

Art, Morkel, the only way I know to work dropbox is to put it in there and then send you an email so I need you guys email address. I already have Steve's.

[Jamie Douglas]

Bravo Stan and I look forward to seeing the repost efforts by Morkel, Steve, and Artie. It looks to be a rather large crop though which is a shame but hopefully some PP help can help distract the attention away from that and more so to the awesome action.

[Steve Kaluski]

Stan, here you go, there are several options on crops, however this is a hefty crop IMHO so I'm not sure about the IQ? Went for a slightly wider format, but will send you a second one as I much prefer the 'wider' POV for the majority of content in. Lets see what Artie & Morkel think. Be a great inside into how we perceive things.

[Arthur Morris]

Steve's repost is a big improvement on what was already a great improvement. Best e-mail for me is samandmayasgrandpa@att.net

[Andrew McLachlan]

Love Steve's repost and don't think the water droplet next to the eye is anything to worry about for this awesome capture.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

[Rachel Hollander]

I agree, Steve's repost is an improvement and the water drop doesn't bother me.

[Stan Cunningham]

Steve always improves my images, doesn't look like you did much else, am I correct? And Art you should have received notification from dropbox. Most glad to hear the water droplet doesn't bother y'all.
Still don't have Morkel's email but I think he's with his family somewhere.

[Stan Cunningham]

My best attempt at Steve's RP, have not seen Arties attempt yet.

[Steve Kaluski]

Stan I would checkout the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 commended and Valter's image.