Bison Portrait

[Loi Nguyen]

Taken in Yellowstone 2 weeks back. The sun came out in a nanosecond during the 3 days we were there.

5D3
70-200f2.8 II @ 135mm
1/320
F10
ISO-800

I was thinking for a head shot, I'd need as much DOF as possible, thus shooting at F10, but I forgot I was shooting at 135mm instead at my usual 500mm/700mm. Not sure how much blurring of the BG I would get since the BG was fairly close to the bison. Would like to hear whether a F4/5.6 would have been sufficient (or even a F2.8).

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice one to open up the theme, Loi.
I would deepen the blacks/shadows just a tad - and the fur seems a bit too crisp, not sure if it's sharpening or a resize issue?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - Nice one to open up this month's theme. Good suggestions by Morkel. I probably would have shot this at f5.6 or 6.3 but that's easier to say in hindsight. For a profile shot you often don't need as much dof as you would with a head on portrait where you are trying to get sharpness from the tip of the nose back to the ears. That being said, here your choice in the field did allow you to have both horns sharp as well. While the sun might have only been out for a few seconds, these bison are usually sticking around so with a cooperative subject I might experiment in the field with different dofs.

TFS,
Rachel

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely framed and very, very sharp. The background is somewhat problematic but the jumble of sticks in front of the animal are very distracting to me. Making a 2nd image at f/2.8 and blending them together might have been the way to go.....

[Loi Nguyen]

Morkel and Rachel, thanks for the suggestion. I reduced the EXP by 1/3EV. The original image was pretty sharp and I applied UMS 120/0.3/0 so the fur looked a bit too crispy as you said. I backed off on the UMS on the fur here in the RP by 60/0.3/0, but left the eye and nose as in the OP.

Artie, agreed that the jumble of branches was distracting. I cloned out those branches here using the Path tool and applied a couple of NR to the BG.

I think the RP is better.

Thank you

Loi

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Great start to the theme of the month Loi, super sharp and detailed head shot. Well done.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, good points raise in the above, if you are using CS6 or PS CC then you could try the new blurring options, this would address the issues re BKG and because you have control you can vary the selection each time you place a new pin selection. But do this as a new layer and apply with a mask if required.

TFS
Steve

[Arthur Morris]

Repost is much better. I will need to take a look at Steve's solution too :)

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi, good points raise in the above, if you are using CS6 or PS CC then you could try the new blurring options, this would address the issues re BKG and because you have control you can vary the selection each time you place a new pin selection. But do this as a new layer and apply with a mask if required.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, thank you so very much for your suggestion. You always has some trick up your sleeves. I had been shy from using Blur because I was told it was too obvious every time I tried it. But that was before I learned the use of Layers from you. So I ttok a crack at it here. Perhaps I could have reduced the blur a tad, but let's see what everyone says. I think it is an improvement and less distracting. Thanks again. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, I'm not a fan off all the 'tricks' software can do, but occasionally it can help to achieve the desired or close effect, but I still feel do as much 'in camera' as possible. there are so many options with the tools you can easily overcook the result. It takes a little time to master/understand how it all works, but it can create a reasonable result.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi,
nice opener for the Theme.
You already got good suggestions by the others to improve stuff.
Based on the last RP i think the bison needs more tonal depth and less sharpening in the fine hairs, just my 2 cents.
The blurring you used looks quite nice.
TFS Andreas

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, Thank you so much for giving great suggestions. I took another look at the image and agreed that little more contarst would help. Regarding the fine hair, I left it un-sharpened here. I think the image was pretty sharp to begin with and re-sizing it gave the apparent of over-sharpening. Loi

[Tom Graham]

Try flipping it left-right.
Think I like it a bit better flipped.
Tom