This is a small red Squirrel that hangs around my house and feeders...she is quite the model and does not mind posing for me....its great...and...she works for...peanuts!
I can see why she models for you...you totally spoil her with peanuts! I know their eyes can be beady black, but those iridescent blue highlights give your squirrel a bit of another world look. Very cute pose and I like the wispy-ness of her ears and tail. Perfect soft mottled bkgd in natural colors, and a good natural perch.
Hi Mike - Welcome to BPN and the Wildlife Forum. It's great the way you have jumped right in and commented on other people's images. It really is the best way to get the most out of BPN.
As for your image, a very nice first post. I really like the comp and pose and engaging eye contact. POV, sharpness and dof all work well too. What PP software are you using btw? I would watch the extremes of the histogram to make sure the blacks don't get choked up. Also be careful with the whites above the eyes. You don't have an embedded color profile so depending on browser there may be a shift in the colors when viewing. It's best to embed an sRGB color profile. Even with a color profile assigned in PS, there's some blues and cyan coming through on the chest. If it were mine, I would also reduce the yellow but just on the squirrel not on the nice bg. These are all minor tweaks. Looking forward to seeing more of your wildlife images.
Thank you Nancy and Rachel, Glad you like it, and your C+C... is greatly appreciated!
@ Nancy:
Of course I do! Don't most models get paid for their gigs! I never noticed the blue eyes until you pointed it out. I can see what your saying, I did try to lighten the highlights some with a dodge tool, that may be what caused it. ;)
@ Rachel
Welcome to BPN and the Wildlife Forum. It's great the way you have jumped right in and commented on other people's images. It really is the best way to get the most out of BPN.
Thanks again and glad to be here. I joined to be a part of BPN and participate. As I said in another post, Kind of disheartening to see so many views but very little interaction. I am not just saying on mine. In general, I see so many posts with so many views but very little interaction. If you can take the time to open the image to look at it, you can at least say a few words, as to why/what you like or dislike about it.
As to your other questions, I use a mix sometimes, I use mainly PS CC and LR but I sometimes try and use DPP 4. On this image, I used PS CC. I was sure the color profile sRGB was embedded when I saved it. It may be something to do with the transfer from FLICKR. I am not happy with the way the images look after the transfer, they look much better on my computer and on FLICKR. I guess there is a lot of compression when they are transferred. Not making any excuses, I just see the IQ is not the same, after the transfer.
I appreciate the advice on the small tweaks and I will watch the HG a little further as you suggested, I usually just look at while in PP like RAW and make sure correct there, but when I transfer it to PS, I never really pay attention to it for some odd reason, but will from no won.
Thanks for the info Mike. Just an FYI but the view count is not an accurate count of independent views. It includes views of members, forum participants and the general public. It also includes multiple views by the same person. For example, if you are following a discussion in a thread, the view count is going to include each time you open the thread. If somebody looks at an image a few times to decide how they feel about it or what suggestions they would make, each time they look registers as a view in the view count.
You might want to consider becoming a member. It's a relatively nominal membership fee which goes to support the costs of maintaining the site. I've always felt that the small fee has done more for my photography than anything else. It will also help others recognize that you are a committed member of the BPN community.
I am deciding whether or not, to join, (well pay the $20 fee, part) I am doing like a 30 day trial, I wanted to see how things go before deciding too. ;)
Hi Mike, Rachel I feel has summed up all the key points in relation to your posting.
I quite like the perch she is sitting on, likewise the soft, mottled colours of he BKG, helps to separate the subject. Techs look good and there is sharpness where it needs to be. Position & framing, for me a fraction more on the LHS, but avoiding being too central. If you can, I might try enticing her over, but without any visible food to view as you have here.
Just make sure that what you shoot in i.e. Adobe RGB in camera, relates to your whole workflow in post processing too, so you have a seamless Working Space. I think the embedded profile issue is like so many people miss, is a unchecked box in Save for web. As presented, the image is quite saturated and it's hard to know if you have added any colour changes in the HSL module etc. What I might suggest is, as I said, check those boxes. If all is OK and you have the correct Working Space throughout your workflow, and shooting RAW files, then it might be worth a quick snapshot of how you processed the image to see if we can help you.
FWIW I quickly tried to balance out things, but without an embedded profile it does push things a lot more and makes life tricky. Not ideal by any shape or means, but it shows there is a lot within your original capture. Hope this all helps.
AHHA, as I hunt & peck on the keyboard I see you guys are having some exchanges, cool. Probably what I have just said is superfluous now, but one thing to note Mike:
Max height is 900px long edge
Max width is 1200px long edge
Thanks Steve for the C+C. I am not real proficient with doing Post-Processing, I am self taught and learning as I go. I do shoot Adobe RGB in Camera but I am not real sure what my settings are in PS CC or LR5. I also know that the sRGB profile box, is checked when I, "Save for the Web". I read that if you do use Adobe RGB to process make sure to convert to sRGB before saving. So not sure what is happening.
I will look into it and thanks again for the post!
Oh just wanted to let you know...I left the peanuts on purpose...it is sort like a play on or homage to, "Lords Of the Rings", hence the title...My Precious...My Precious. Like Gollum and the Ring. ;)
Mike can you PM me your email, I will try and send you some colour set-ups for PSCC and PM's don't allow attachments, likewise a screen grab of LR press too for file handling. Unless you are in Adobe's CC then try and keep up to date with your processing software, don't let thing lapse so you are working in LR5.4 but PS 5 say, it just spells disaster!!!!
Yes, I know...this one is 1024 x 899, at least that is what I saved it as, if got bigger I do not know how.
Again probably if you had Exported from LR with old dimensions?
I left the peanuts on purpose...it is sort like a play on or homage to, "Lords Of the Rings", hence the title...My Precious...My Precious. Like Gollum and the Ring. ;)
She should have thrown her cloak over the nuts, then they would have disappeared.
Hi there Mike. Sorry for taking so long to get to your post, I was working my way from the top LOL
Welcome here, and I agree it's a nice pose and nice shot. I concur with the colour suggestions and Steve's repost takes it up a notch.
I think you could have easily traded in ISO for aperture, say f16 @ ISO2500 vs the current f9 @ ISO1000?
I am looking forward to more of your posts and your critique of other threads as well.
Hi Morkel, No Worries, we all get busy from time to time, I agree I could have taken it up. I am still in the learning stage with my 1DX and trying out different settings and such. Also, as Steve pointed out, I had 2-3 different Color Space settings going on....LR was on ProPhoto, PS CC was on AdobeRGB and my cameras are on sRGB...I set them all to the same now my images are coming out much better. Thanks to Steve!
I am still in the learning stage with my 1DX and trying out different settings and such. Also, as Steve pointed out, I had 2-3 different Color Space settings going on....LR was on ProPhoto, PS CC was on AdobeRGB and my cameras are on sRGB...I set them all to the same now my images are coming out much better. Thanks to Steve!
Hi Mike, people laugh when I say, 'get the basics right, the rest will fall into place', but this does go to show what happens, but a valuable lesson learnt and great that you now have a way forward now.
I'm hammered at present with various personal commitments so I will respond as soon as I can, but your PM excluded your email address I think, so can you forward it vi a PM again and when time allows I will send the stuff through.