Polarscape Pano

[Rachel Hollander]

I had said in one of my earlier posts that I had a few pano images and promised to post one. Hopefully, you're not tired of polar bears yet. This one was taken from the zodiac.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 200mm
1/4000 (purposely underexposed)
f6.3
ISO 400
HH from moving zodiac, cropped to pano, straightened, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, LCE to sky, sharpened in CS6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Markus Jais]

This is a wonderful pano shot. I would never get tired of Polar Bears, just read two great books about them by two great researches.

I think this would also look good if it were a bit brighter but it also works very well as shown.

Markus

[Diane Miller]

Fantastic! Love the composition. That light band in the sky is perfectly positioned and the choice of a pano here is perfect.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Markus and Diane, much appreciated.

Rachel

[jack williamson]

What a regal image Rachel! A stunner!

Jack

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, beautiful landscape with a polar bear. What was the reason for under exposing this image? I'd have liked to see a bit more details of the snow. My feeling is you were a bit far from the bear, so he is a bit small in the frame and the viewer don't quite connect with him. Lets hear from the others. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Rachel perhaps one of the best PB images I have seen posted on BPN, Pete has a lot to answer for, LOL. Just wished it was mine, one cracking image.

TFS
Steve

PS Just watching the mist clear over the tip of the Eiger

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Rachel, I agree with all. Fantastic image. Well done

Enjoy your day

Ciao

Anette

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone, I'm glad you like it.

Loi - we were shooting from a bouncing zodiac so needed to keep the ss high for sharp images. The bear was once again between us and where the sun was breaking through. I wanted to capture some of the golden color but retain some detail and dof in the bear and ice without blowing any highlights in the snow, sky or water. We also didn't know how the bear would react to the zodiac and had limited time due to a storm coming in. We were asked to only bring one camera and lens in the zodiac and it was suggested that we bring our medium telephotos for ease of maneuverability in the zodiac. I had no problem honoring the requests because I wanted to create some polarscapes.

Thanks again all,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This is just beautiful! Awesome light and great technique!

[edwardselfe]

This is stunning - wouldn't change anything.
Ed

[Andrew Merwin]

Rachel, I like this immensely. It captures the PB's environment perfectly & I feel that I was there. Underexposure was the way to go here. I appreciate the explanation re. underexposure. TFS.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sanjeev, Ed and Andrew - I'm glad you all like it.

Rachel

[dankearl]

Striking vision you had here, Rachel.
You achieved what you must have imagined in your mind when you took it , a perfect photograph, what we all strive to do
when we press the shutter.
Very nice....

[Rachel Hollander]

Dan - Thanks for the very kind words.

Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

What a great shot Rachel. It really captures a sense of the habitat and solitary lifestyle of these animals for me. The best polar bear image I've ever viewed.

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - thanks very much for the very kind words.

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
a big hat lift from me for this really extraordinary image, would not want to say the best i have seen from polar bears , that would be gone too far, but a really .......... good one.

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is one cracking shot Rachel. To me, your best posted on BPN yet.
Take a bow, great vision, execution and processing.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Morkel and Andreas, I very much appreciate it.

Rachel