Red Fox

[Josh Burrows]

Hi all,

I am relatively new to wildlife photography and just wanted to share one of my pictures to get some feedback

I took this image on the 25th January 2014 with a 55-200mm lens on a Nikon D3200.
It was taken at the British Wildlife Centre is Sussex, England, on a cloudy, grey day.
The shot was taken through a fence, the one with diamond shape holes.
I used a shutter speed of around 1/300
On Photoshop Elements 11, I cropped the image, enhanced the colours and the contrast.


Thanks in advance,
Josh

[Diane Miller]

Hi Josh, and welcome to posting here!

A good attempt for an early post, with the fox appearing relaxed and alert, intent on something. You might revisit the crop and see how things look giving the fox a little more room on the sides.

But I see things you could think about for the next time. My first thought is that you would have a stronger image if the fox was looking to your right so there was light on the face. And if possible, you will get a stronger image if you get down to the animal's level. You would have avoided the somewhat distracting grass in the foreground and gotten the softer (more out of focus) background elements you see above the fox.

Getting focus right on the eyes is a very important element for animals. The means choosing one focus point and making sure the subject distance doesn't change even slightly between focus and shutter firing. It also means keeping the shutter speed high enough that camera shake and subject movement are not factors to degrade sharpness. Lots to think about!! The grasses at the fox's feet are nicely sharp, more than the face, so there may have been subject movement.

Was this a RAW file or a JPEG? If RAW, how was it processed? I think most people would favor not enhancing color and contrast quite this much.

[David Kenny]

Josh,

It looks like the focus may have been off a little. The grass in the foreground looks sharper than the face of the fox. It may have been due to movement of the fox as well. Nice shot. I am still learning myself.

- Dave

[Randall Farhy]

Josh- very nice capture and interesting light. The colors contrast very nicely making the subject stand out from it's surroundings. I feel the softness in the face is due to movement, the shutter speed used is on the low side for a longer lens on a cropped? sensor body. The DoF range on the grass appears to encompass the Fox' head and is rather well defined, so I don't feel it's camera shake related. I would recommend using a higher SS/ ISO combo if possible to help reduce motion blur on a moving subject. Thanks for sharing and keep'em coming!

[Josh Burrows]

Thank you for the feedback, I have recently been doing quite a lot of research into focusing and the different focus settings, hopefully this will improve my shots in the future,

JOSH

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Josh - nice looking fox. It would be great if you posted your full exif data including shutter speed (which you did), aperture and ISO. It helps us to make suggestions for in the field as well. I am somewhat surprised that you shot this in overcast light because it looks like there's some sun coming in from the right and unfortunately the whites are hot/blown as are some of the reds below the ear on the left side of the fox's face. Additionally some of the blacks are choked up. It may just be a matter of your adding too much contrast in pp. How about posting the straight out of camera image to see if it is a pp issue or an in the field issue? I agree with David and Randall about the focus. BPN is a great place to learn. Looking forward to more of your posts.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Josh! Great pose! Does look like the grass is more in focus than the fox's face.... Also seems that the grass is a bit oversaturated? Great capture!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Josh, BWC is a good place to start in building on your skills. For me the two key areas you need to look and work on is focus (where to put the focus point on the subject), and exposure. You need to understand about how to read your Histogram, as this is your best friend. Composition, framing avoid distracting elements within frame etc all comes in time, get the basics right and this will ensure a good platform for the future, but ultimately enjoy.

I would back off on the saturation & contrast as the blacks look choked in some of the shadow areas and the whites/highlight appear to be blown or at least, have very little if any detail, things like this can be easily controlled and comes back to your Histogram. If you camera has the setting, it might be worth enabling Highlight alerts so it indicates any blown whites in the image preview on the back of the camera?

Did you go on your own, or was this one of the many 'photo days' they run?

cheers
Steve

[Josh Burrows]

Thanks all for your help and advice. After reading your comments, and looking at the image normally and at 100%, I can see the grass is more in focus than the actual fox.
Steve, I went on a weekend with my family, I would love to go on one of their open days but they are all on days when I have school. I have recently brought a guide for my camera so will look into the histogram.
Here is the original photograph, prior to editing, again, Photoshop is very new to me so I need to learn on how to enhance photos without going over the top.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Josh, great the original looks good apart from the where your focus was (?), with something like this I would have popped it on the eye.

Personally shooting & post production work hand in hand and both are crucial to each other, however, don't try to run, just take your time. Keep your workflow simple and in that way your images will be better, less is more!

I'll shoot you a PM with a link to a good friend of mine who runs those days you mentioned, as one may be when you are off school on holiday and worth doing perhaps?

Cheers
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Josh - I agree with Steve, the straight out of camera looks much better. Other than the focus issue, it appears that most of the problems were from the processing and overcooking the image. As Steve knows, my mantra when it comes to most pp is "less is more." An image that is well composed and captured only needs a few tweaks/adjustments to "develop" it.

Rachel

[Diane Miller]

I agree, the less-worked image is much better. Your monitor is important in image work, too, to accurately represent what is in the file. It should be calibrated and profiled with one of the software packages (if it is a laptop, that may or may not work). That and the histogram are key tools in image work.

There is a sticky at the top of this forum with some information on calibration.

[Steve Kaluski]

Josh, at 13 and based on the posting it appears you have a good skill set already, don't get bogged down too much with all the techs stuff, that as I said, takes time, most of all have fun and enjoy what you do. Post here and try and implement the suggestions made in future images.

Above ALL, if something is unclear, or you simply do not understand what is being said, just ask and never fear it sounds a daft question, we all have been there and have asked them already. Hope you mange to get out over the weekend in between the rain.

[Josh Burrows]

Thank you all for the feedback, with the histograms, do they only appear when the photo has been taken, I can view them in the playback menu. I was wondering if this is the only way or can you see them before you take the image, perhaps on the screen where all of the other information is displayed?

Josh

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Josh - the histogram appears after you take the image but that's the great thing about digital, you can view the histogram right after taking the image and then make any necessary adjustments.

Rachel

[Diane Miller]

With some cameras, you can view a histogram in Live View mode. It's small, imposed on the image, and not the easiest to read. Usually easier to shoot and then see what you got.

And the histogram in your RAW converter is very valuable, too. It's telling you what is actually in the image, while a monitor might not always be the most accurate representation.

In most cases, especially in flat light, you want to expose so the histogram is pushed to the right without getting too many "blinkies" in the highlight alert. The image may be somewhat overexposed that way, but you can reduce the exposure successfully in the RAW converter, if it didn't go too far. If you underexpose and try to bring it back up, you will get noise.