My house is built on a large granite dome and the abundant rocks have abundant cavities and crevasses for lots of Golden-mantled Ground squirrels (front animal) and chipmunks to make their homes. That stripe pattern must be a good one for both species to have it. Early morning entertainment is watching these critters scurry around, searching for dropped bird seeds and natural foods, while trying to avoid the hunting fox. When a fox is sighted those squirrels perch high on a protruding rock and sound the alarm, causing all the others to run. My dog has picked up on the alarm call and adds his own barking to the cause. I sit on the front porch with my camera and tripod at dawn until the sun gets too strong, or the coffee runs out !
Canon 1DX, Canon 200-400 f4 L IS + 1.4x III @ 560mm, 1/1250, f8, ISO 800, exposure compensation +1/3.
Hi Nancy - it's nice to see the two species and I can just picture the scene with you out there with your coffee and your dog at the feet of your tripod barking. Colors look great and you've brought out good detail too. I think I would prefer more dof to get both in focus and given that you were using a tripod, you probably could have sacrificed a bit of ss to stop down even more. I would consider a crop from the bottom to remove some or all of the black/shade area. Fortunately, you don't have to go far to experiment with your settings .
For once I will disagree with Rachel :) maybe against the forum rules :o But more DOF would have made the BG very harsh, the light was very strong from the looks of things and those nasty contrast highlights would be much worse at f10 or 11. So no, I like it as it is.
Love the setting and these two almost facing each other.
Agree with Neil on DOF.
In some images I took there was an old log/dried wood present, I found hot spots on log- was surprised to see that you employed +0.3EV?
ETTR in my opinion really works at high ISO to keep the noise in darks to a minimum. Did you expose with Matrix metering? That would explain the settings..
Is there any advantage in this over using centre weighted metering?
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments and critiques.
I don't think increased DOF would have helped the back chipmunk. It is really farther away than this image suggests.
Andre, I am thinking about your good question. I cannot remember the exact lighting conditions that made me add +1/3 exp. comp. For you are right that bright areas in an old gray log would be prone to overexposure. I do check my histogram frequently, both to expose to the right and not have blinkies. I used evaluative metering mode. It was 652 am and maybe I needed to add that extra exposure. I didn't have any hot spots on the log.
Rachel, I like the suggestion of cropping some from the bottom.
Hi Nancy, to have a few blinks may not hurt as you will be surprised what you can recover, but in harsh light, blown whites are blown whites, but experiment and see as it's a good way to explore and learn IMHO.
When I first saw the image I felt it's way too contrasty, the shadows are heavy and the detail in the eye is choked. If you revisit the RAW you will be able to retrieve some detail back in the shadows, the eye and the fur doesn't look so crunchy, I've tried it and it helps. Pulling back the Contrast also helps and at ISO 800 you should not get much noise in those areas I feel. I'm OK with the DoF and I like the way the grass flanks either side of the image. Perhaps a little off top & bottom?
Hi Nancy i really like this as is , well almost ........ Nice to see two species in that combo in one frame.
I am with Neil about the DOF , just leave it .
I do agree with Steve about the overall contrast and the choked looking shadows , a bit lower would help the image i think.You might try to blend the dark dominating blob in the BKG into the green foliage.
Andre , you still fight for your centre weighted .......... no need in these days ........... most of the times .
Nancy, the framing by the foliage is nice, and the repetition/mirrored poses works well for me.
I too find the contrast a bit harsh and the light certainly wasn't in your favour. Have you tried experimenting with this in monochrome? Some nice texture and the framing could work well if you convert the greens of the foliage in a separate layer for better tonal separation from the subjects...