Whitetail Buck in velvet

[John Mack]

Vertical portrait of a whitetail buck in velvet. Image adjustments in Lightroom. Hand held, full frame.

This time i will include a self critique.

Self critique: Too tight in the frame all around. Not enough room below for the virtual feet. Colors are too saturated especially the greens. Uneven background with light and dark areas. All the flies should be cloned out. Nice direct stare. Distracting branch on the left side in the background. Shutter speed is okay.

Canon 5D MarkIII
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
313mm
ISO 1600
f5.6
1/250sec

[Stuart Philpott]

John this is wicked the stare utterly compelling to view, pov fabulous here!! I disagree the bkg is fine, looser in crop only on the base for me . Flies for me are addition John when I see deer up close in the warmer months there are flies I actually like to see them in my images,maybe this like so much in our images is deeply personal,but I feel you have been a bit harsh on your self here. This is a fine image, for me one of your best, and if the whitetail was a native to me an image I'd be proud to call mine. Genuinely John,I'd be thrilled to bits for this to be mine. Colour well this feels right I'd rather deffer to the others here mate ,but for me this works.

Hmm I'd have gone higher on SS and pushed the iso more the 5Diii is more modern than my 1Div so that sensor has to be good for more,i'm sort of maxed I think at 5000,but maybe as I learn more can come???? John on every level Steve has pushed me to use higher .SS and use iso to get there,hand on heart he has got me images that I simply would not have ,if it hadn't been for him. I know it john as little as I do know I know this. I feel it's confidence that gets in the way of this phylosophy i've slowly gone further and further I think it takes time for one to find that confidence ,but it's really worth persuing especially as you HH alot like me. Obviously getting the exposure right is critical and I fail here at times,but the mindset even for a slightly older camera like mine is a good one.

Ahh mate I knew images like this were going to come from you well done buddy love it.... wild deer are so hard to get close to, with your abilities this just had to come

TFS

Stu

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A very nice image John, I like the head on pose and those antlers look fine. Agree with a bit more room below but not a huge deal.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi John - Pretty much the only part of your self-critique I agree with is more room below needed and that the direct stare is nice. The greens look better here. I might darken them if it were mine. I don't clone/remove natural elements so for me the flies stay. The bg is fine but I would burn the brightest specular hls so that they do not draw the eye as much. Depending on your personal ethics you may consider removing the specular hl between the legs. The fur on the deer looks a little mottled. If it were mine I would reduce the blues/cyans coming through on the body and nose.

For me the take away from your posts and the various critiques that I would concentrate on in the field is more room below and a faster ss. The other issues can all be dealt with easily in pp.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi John, for me this is you best deer image, I really like the low angle looking up, the subject is alert, inquisitive and the pose isn't quite head on. John do you move the Focus point, or just shoot with the centre point, hence the issue with too little at the foot of the image? Shooting with say f/11+ you would start to loose/blend more the dapple highlights, but I like them as it breaks up the backdrop ditto the darker patches. Personally I would have gone to say f/9 being so close, as I'm not sure if muzzle to eyes there is enough, but eyes to ears appears to be OK. The flowers, like the bugs/flies gives it a 'season' so for me I feel they should stay.

Colors are too saturated especially the greens.

I don't feel it's too saturated here John, but the initial overall colour does look slightly off, as it's not just one colour that is the more dominating one.

Shutter speed is okay.

That is only subject to the Raw being sharp John. As you had enough ISO I would have suggested going straight to 3200 and had more SS and a little more DoF up my sleeve.

TFS
Steve

[Gemma Watson]

To me all perfect. Nice color combination/background. Thanks for posting.

[Douglas Bolt]

Compelling image. Like the grass and blooms in the foreground. The yellow spots of light are a bit distracting.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I agree with all that has been said, I think this is one of your best images to date. The colours for me are just a little imbalanced but to my eye a lot better than previous.
(Is your screen calibrated regularly?)