Young White-tailed Deer Crossing Lake
I took this early one morning from my john boat near Falmouth, KY. I do have another image of this from a different angle that provides better detail but I just liked the feeling this one gives from the way the sunlight is hitting fog better.
Canon 7d
handheld
1/640 sec
f/5.6
ISO100
EF 400mm f/5.6 lens
Processed in Lightroom and I did take the vibrance down just a hair.
Love it! I might tone down the brightest areas and bring out the fog a little more, but it has a great feel to it.
Jack Dean III thanked for this post
This is wonderful! I like the colours but agree with Warren about bringing out the mist. I would be tempted to see what an ever so slightly darkened eye would look like. In a perfect world, if the doe was looking a little more toward you, but she was probably trying to steer away from the boat. IMO, I think a CCW rotation and more room at the bottom would really make this image sing! Great capture from a boat! Did you see the "Bullfrog" image in the wildlife forum taken from a canoe.
Jack Dean III thanked for this post
Dear Jack,
Welcome to BPN and Merry Christmas to you!
Thank you for sharing this capture, very interesting - I did not know these chaps can swim:)
Here's a quick RP, I straightened the image and played with exposure, a slightly different crop and I sharpened a tad before posting. I would have liked a tad more on the bottom of the image, for the "virtual legs" of the subject.
Love the mist, ISO 100 too little IMO, not enough shutter speed for a moving subject...I would have taken this at ISO 400 or more...Keep experimenting, I do look forward to more from you in 2016!
Kind regards,
Gabriela Plesea
Jack Dean III thanked for this post
Hi, Jack. Beautiful image that evokes a calm joy of being on the water and meeting the natural world with some intimacy. And you had good gear that enabled you to capture and share it with us. I agree about the leveling and virtual legs. Until I read Gabriela's comment, I wasn't certain about what was nagging me about the image. I like your colors. That they're muted. I think that adds to the ethereal quality of the scene. I look forward to seeing more of your photographs.
Jack Dean III thanked for this post
I love the misty look here -- a lovely scene. I agree with the rotation -- hope you have a little more canvas on the bottom. It not a crop, it would be easy to add canvas on the bottom and fill it in plausibly.
I think something went wrong with Gabriella's post -- the darks are way too dark for me.
Here's a slight tweak -- a touch of Nik Detail Extractor, then masked out top and bottom (large soft-edged brush), just leaving it on the deer. Then I did a quick mask painted over the head (again,large soft brush) and gave a slight boost to contrast there with curves, but bringing down only the darker tones and holding the lighter ones where they were. Gives a little more detail in the head.
I lowered yellow saturation just a little -- that's purely a matter of artistic license but it leaned just a little more toward cyan than what I would have done.
Jack Dean III thanked for this post
Thanks everyone. Sorry it took me so long to get back. I have been pretty busy with the holidays and all. This is what I have come up with after listening to all of your advice. I sharpened and added a bit of contrast with a brush in lightroom and made some adjustments in curves. I also took the crop back. Thank you for your advice my post processing skills have a lot to be desired.
OK -- nice. But now the rotation has gone too far. When you pull up the crop frame in LR toggle the "O" key to see various overlays. Go to one with horizontal lines and line up the waves to be horizontal and you'll have it.
I like that the reflection now comes to an end before the bottom of the frame.
Thank you Diane. I believe I have it now. :)
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