Hi Norm, the overall image looks way too saturated, the subject looks soft (is this a large crop?) and the overall environment 'fuzzy', especially in the BKG. There is no real clarity or detail to the image. The head to camera is nice, likewise the slight raised front leg, would have been good to have had the tail in view too. If 'ethics' allow, I would clone the brighter elements in the top LHC.
Good to see you posting in Wildlife, I have never seen a Patagonian Fox here so very exciting for me to open this thumbnail. IQ a bit disappointing though and I suspect it could be due to a fairly large crop - if so, would you perhaps consider showing us a less cropped version? The environment is quite amazing and lush, love the abundance of colour but tempted to tone down saturation a bit.
Lovely pose from the subject and a cute, surprised look, nice POV. A very special capture and the techs look good, I agree with Steve above worth revisiting the RAW.
Thanks for your comments, Morkel. And my apologies to everyone, and to this attractive fox, for gross over saturation and other mishandling of the OP. Attached is an un-cropped, minimally adjusted version of the original RAW file. Any further comments?
Okay Norm - downloaded the file and processed it quickly.
First off - the fox is not in focus. The face is notably soft and OOF and as such this really should be one of the files marked "x" for deletion, unless stored as a sighting memory.
Here's my processed file. I had to sharpen the fox and specifically the face multiple times to get it looking/appearing sharp enough at this resolution.
I think the grittiness of the bokeh is due to the lens/camera combo used combined with atmospheric conditions. In RAW I used the clarity slider to reduce that harshness.
I toned down the brightness overall quite a bit to bring more tonality to the fox and surrounding tundra shrubbery.
The crop choice is due to file quality and subject placement staring straight down the lens.
I didn't adjust saturation - but could possibly have done a 10 point increase for vibrance...