Left it full frame

[Stan Cunningham]

I have a horizontal crop of this beautiful boar but I liked the full frame with all the different colors.
Hoping this image shows some of what I've learned from the comments the last month, thanks for those again.
From a biologists standpoint this boar blew me away. His ears betray he's still fairly young (7 to 10) but when he fully grows into that body, huge even in the summer coat, he will OWN the Katmai. As it was, none of the older boars pushed him around which they did with almost all the other bears.
Canon 5 D III, 500 F4, ISO 1000, 7.1 at 1/400 sec.
LR 4, to CS 5 very slight S/H, curves, viveza structure, color effex contrast and USM sharpening.

[Carl Walker]

Stan I must compliment you on the bear shots that I have seen from you. I too like the full frame and colours as it adds to the scene. The detail IMO is really crisp and the wet fur is displayed well. The only thing I find slightly distracting is the blurred dead branch or tree creeping out in the distance on the right hand side of his rump. A really nice image!!

Stan as somebody who has huge interest in animal behaviour could you explain your comment on the ears betraying his age. I can only assume that this may be perhaps partly due to his ears not being torn or lacerated from fighting, as an older more experienced bear might have encountered in its lifetime? Thanks

[Robert Amoruso]

I know him. I agree with your assessment - no one bothered him.

Concerning the full frame, I am debating the OOF bush on left. Croping it unbalances the image however. I don't find it distracting but not sure it helps either.

[Stan Cunningham]

Carl, I thought I had this on my blog on Cunninghamoutdoors.com, but I guess not. If you are interested in bear biology I invite you to visit it just select the brown bear category in the blog, you might see way more than you want to read.
A bears ears quit growing at 3. A boar will continue to grow body size until 10 to 12, but the head grows slowly until he dies. Therefore there are 2 ways to get a general idea on a bears age with respect to ears. One, the size of the ears in relation to the skull. Since Robert and I were at the same beach I'm sure he can tell you there were several boars where the ears looked smaller, they're not smaller, their skull is larger. The same with the distance between the ears. If the ears look far apart, it's an older bear, close together a young one. This guy's ears look some what medium sized and medium width, but I've been looking at bears for 25 years so it's easier for me to make a call.
Your comment on the ears not being torn is a good observation though, and I suspect they will be more ragged as he gets more into exerting his dominance during breeding. I really hope I'm lucky enough to see this guy in about 5 years, he will be very impressive.

I too wondered about the dead bush, but left it in for color. The horizontal to me was not quite as impressive but if any one wants to see it and the moderators will let me I can post it as well.

[Gregor Bergquist]

Beautiful image and I´m glad you left some habitat. Tech wise, spot on. And a interesting bear ear discussion :)

TFS / Gregor

[Carl Walker]

Thanks for the info Stan. I certainly will look at your stuff. TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stan, this is a vast improvement and a big step forward, in the right direction, however... you need to check your colour profile, as the image is very saturated because it is an RGB file, NOT an sRGB file.

Well I like the comp/position of the bear and the tree on the left is habitat, so in this instance I don't find it distracting, I also like the fact you kept the water in in the FG, gives a nice balance. If it was me I would loose the small branch coming in in the top RHC, plus the one touching his butt. Personally I might also try and balance the red & magenta a little, but not a big deal breaker. I also feel the subject could stand a little more sharpening to.

Just my take Stan, but I think the more 'cooler', less saturated look depicts the climate conditions better, but your call. Stan keep the hard work up, it's beginning now to fall into place.

TFS
Steve

[Stan Cunningham]

Steve, thanks for the positive comments. Unfortunately I've been through this before. I save all my jpegs for posting is Save for web in CS5 and I have the box checked convert to sRGB. Every other photograph I've posted was saved the same way and I have no idea how it would not be an sRGB.
Also, I just spent an hour on ADOBE help and can't figure out how to read the color profile when I download my OP and pull it into CS5, can you tell me how to do it?

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful bear shot. Great to see some habitat. I like the walking pose and the water drops.

Markus

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Stan - a great habitat shot with the green bushes behind and the water in the fg. I don't mind the bush on the lhs and do feel it balances the image. As always, Steve's tweaks are just right. You should be able to see the embedded color profile in Bridge. Alternatively, if you have CS set up to tell you when there is a color profile mismatch then when it is properly saved for web as sRGB a pop-up will come up when you import into CS assuming your workspace in CS is Adobe RGB. It might be worth it for you to use the extra step of converting the color profile under the Edit tab rather than relying on checking the box.

TFS,
Rachel

P.S. I presume when you say horizontal crop you actually mean that you have a portrait crop of this bear. If it is the same image then it is fine to post in this thread to see which people prefer.

[Steve Kaluski]

Check your email Stan, it should help.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Sounds like he's the one to watch! I like the comp as presented, but would have liked some more space below and perhaps even a portrait orientation?
Steve's repost looks better to me. I always run an action that converts to 8-bit and sRGB before saving for web.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Stan, love this bear shot. Great sighting and for sure great info about them what I have read above. thanks so much for that. Now I wonder with ears further apart and closer with the age, does that count to all bears on our planet or only to this kind in your image ?

Have a great day

ciao Anette

[Roman Kurywczak]

Very nice Stan! I like Steve's repost as well. I am on the fence with this one as I like the environs of the OP....but I can also see this as a tighter vert. Either way....this is very well done!!!

[Steve Canuel]

First thing I noticed when I looked at this was the size of the muzzle. Also thought he had the look of an awkward, too strong for his own good juvenile so it was interesting to read your comments. I like it as presented, thing a vertical would look good, and would've had also like to have seen a wider version that captured the edges of the winding river and the complete tree (if that was even possible at this location.) IQ/processing looks good.