Theme: Black-backed Jackal aka BBJ

[Katie Rupp]

From the Mara, September 2014 on an overcast morning. Canon Mark5DIII, 500f4, 1/800, f4, Av, ISO 1600. Not sure why the bg has that strange pattern/shadowing as I didn't do any cloning or other processing to it and I'm also questioning color (I warmed it up as it had a cold bluish look). Thanks for looking and I greatly appreciate your comments and helpful critiques.

Katie

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hey Katie. I hope you are well, good to see you posting again.
You nailed the focus here and I like that the head (and the whole head, nose to ears) is sharp and the rest trails out of focus.
I might look at the colour some more - perhaps balance out the hint of magenta coming through now? Was this shot full frame vertically or cropped from horizontal?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Kate, nice head on pose and I like the tip of the tongue being visible. The portrait format works well, but feel if you have it, a bit more FG for the Jackal to run into would be better. I'm wondering if it's the shallow DoF that has caused the pattern? Certainly the colour needs to be balance, it's not looking right and I might be tempted to create a virtual copy of the RAW and start again without any 'history'. Get the WB right then perhaps adjust the Tint slider, this seems to have a reasonable effect and will help that Magenta cast you have in the OP, then you can hone the respective colour if required. I might hold fire about adding warmth to the image until last of all.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Katie - Nice head on pose and eye contact. The tongue out adds to the image. I agree about the magenta cast and more room below. Is the pattern present in the raw too? If so, then I think Steve has it right for the cause.

TFS,
Rachel

[D. Robert Franz]

Well Hi Katie great to see you around. Very good image except for the reason explained above! Must have been a great trip!

[Steve Canuel]

He sure has the wide eyes and I know there's a bushy tail back there somewhere. Great eye contact and I like the raised foot. Regarding your patterns in the BG, I had some identical markings during one of my shoots. I wonder if it could be due to heat shimmer. My situation was 18 F temps but I was shooting a pronghorn standing in a patch of sunlight poking through the clouds. Subject was sharp but BG looked very similar to this.

[Katie Rupp]

Looking at it after the critiques, I wonder how I didn't see the magenta anyway, I knew there was something off. How's this? I have struggled...too much the other way?

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Morkel, thanks for the advice. It is indeed cropped from the horizontal; I had trouble with this but just couldn't work it out so I bit the bullet and posted for help. This forum has so many great photographers I tend to feel intimidated. How is the repost?

[Katie Rupp]

Thank you, Rachel; the pattern is there in the raw as well. I did have a bit more room for the feet to add to the repost.

[Katie Rupp]

Well Hi Katie great to see you around. Very good image except for the reason explained above! Must have been a great trip!

Hey Dale,
It was a great photographic safari last September with Morkel and the Wild Eye team.

Thanks!

[Russell Johnson]

Hi Katie,

Good capture and detail with the DOF.

Would agree with the comments above with regard to the colour. In the repost it looks as if you have over compensated and the image looks on the cool side and quite washed out.

I had a lot of issues with colour, so take quite a scientific approach to an image, average blur technique etc, which helps give me a baseline. Appreciate there are many ways to skin a cat, though the steps I take in PS generally provide a more realistic colour once I have set the initial WB in the RAW converter. I have put a quick repost below as to where I would take the image.



Let me know if you want me to list what I did step by step.

It is only a few steps, less than 1 minute from having the PP perfect.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Colours do look better in your repost but maybe a little too far in the other direction...but still an improvement. It looks more natural. Maybe a CW rotation! Nice clean surroundings and the focus is spot on.