Kangaroo up close..

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys,

Another Kangaroo... I have been wanting a good closeup of a Kangaroo for some time now, still not 100% happy with what I have taken to date, but I liked this effort enough to post, so tell me what you think. The self critique would be that I still lack DOF, the nose took a bit of selective sharpening and the head at the base of the ears is not sharp enough for me. I choose to cut off the ears to get in close, no ears may be an issue to some, not sure... Got the eye where I wanted it however. I guess the price of the close shot is lack of DOF...

1D4 & 500 F4, F8, ISO 1000
tripod & Wimberly head
Almost Full frame, cropped bottom to 5 x 7 format

Processed in ACR, used Luminosity mask to darken chest, then Selectively sharpened using NIK software, lightened eye slightly. Sized and resharpened for the Web using HP filter.

regards

DON

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Don,
even if i am in a different mood at the moment , i like the tight portrait of this Roo.
You got nice detail ,colors and tonal range , good job on that .I do not mind the DOF as presented.Not sure about the BG corner on LHS as viewed , but i think it is difficult to avoid this. Did you cut off the very end of the whiskers ?
I would just reduce the blues that are creeping through , easy to do.

Nice one , Don
TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Don, from my perspective your best to date in Wildlife. I too like the close crop and I think the DoF looks spot on as you have sharpness from ear to nose. The whiskers are a little close to the edge, but not a deal breaker. I like the overall tones and soft BKG colours.

TFS
Steev

[Don Railton]

Thanks guys. Difficult to see the tip of the whiskers through the 500 when framing it up, experience will tell me to allow for this next time. The blues I look for in when setting WB, I use the dropper in ACR on the various grey areas and take a mental average then set it to what I think. Will recalibrate my thinking to the warm side ever so slightly, but really I need a better (&calibrated) monitor.

DON

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Don regarding the blues, from my knowledge you cannot avoid the blues , specially , in the shadow area even when you have a correct WB .They are there and when you tweak the image with any kind of contrast you also change the colors ever so slightly .Only way is to treat them separately later in the process, as far as i know.
Workflow should be ,for me, WB , Contrast, Color, Sharpening. It is not depending on the screen if you have blues coming through, unless you have a really fancy setting on your screen.
An option to see if there are blues you do not want to have , in Ps go to Selection- Color Range - select the Blues from the drop down menu - save the selection - hue /saturation adjustment layer - drop the master saturation - and the blues are gone , if you want them to be gone .

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Don - I agree your best to date. Sharpness looks good and I too am fine with dof here. I too deal with color cast issues near the end of my workflow because various adjustments in PS can make them more apparent. In addition to the blue in the shadow, there is a line of yellow along the bottom jawline that looks out of place. Btw I did look at a tighter crop to eliminate the tiny bit of space behind the head but preferred your comp. Overall, really well done and congrats on achieving it!

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Railton]

Hi Andreas & Rachel, thanks for you tips! I Understand (I think) why the blue or any cast happens, and I usually address this just before sharpening, so I think I got this right. I will admit that I am still learning to be subtle with my adjustments /colour renditions, but that's coming with experience.


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[Morkel Erasmus]

Don, I'm in 2 minds about the ears - I want them "all in" but then the facial detail would be compromised I would think.
Lovely detail and sharpness where it counts - agree with Steve, your best here to date.