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Thread: Bull in the Morning

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    Default Bull in the Morning

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    The Slippery Ann Viewing Area of the CMR Refuge in north central Montana is spectacular for elk in the rut. This year they were a bit further out than last year, so were stretching my lens, but caught this guy as the sun just started peaking over the trees. 6D, Sigma 150-600 (600), 1/320 (+2/3 EV), f6.3, ISO 800, Induro Tripod.

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    Great light and super capture.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Dear Jerry,

    Beautiful Elk and the colourful environment is stunning, light is superb.

    Looking at techs I personally feel shutter speed is too low - in order to achieve better sharpness and detail I would have aimed for at least 1/1000s.

    In terms of composition, it would be nice to have more space at the bottom of the frame to allow for the virtual limbs.

    Pose from the elk is great and I like that purposeful walk, nice head angle too.

    This is a wonderful vibrant image and I enjoyed viewing. Thank you so much for sharing, let us see some more if you have?

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Jerry a lovely elk specimen captured in wonderful light , colors look great .
    IQ is somehow lacking , might be because of the low SS .I do agree with Gabriela about the " missing " FG for a bit more comp balance .

    TFS Andreas

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    Beautiful light and moment captured, Jerry. I especially like the shafts of light running across the frame and highlighting the animal. Tone and colour look good to me here but the image looks a little soft overall. I'm guessing you cropped a fair bit for this which may have contributed. I agree with other comments that the composition could be improved with more below and less above - I wonder if you cropped the way you did to keep those colours in the top of the frame? If so, I think you could still take a bit off the top and keep a fair bit of that colour. Horizontal placement looks good though. Lovely frame - thanks for sharing.

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    Thanks for your critique, as always greatly appreciated. You are correct in that I favored the colors above which kind of directed the crop. There was a shadow line in the grass below which I cropped out, but by the comments probably should have left in. I was in a dilemma regarding SS vs. ISO above 800. I'm still not sure what the correct answer might have been. He was pursuing cows, so didn't have time to try both!
    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn Pure View Post
    Beautiful light and moment captured, Jerry. I especially like the shafts of light running across the frame and highlighting the animal. Tone and colour look good to me here but the image looks a little soft overall. I'm guessing you cropped a fair bit for this which may have contributed. I agree with other comments that the composition could be improved with more below and less above - I wonder if you cropped the way you did to keep those colours in the top of the frame? If so, I think you could still take a bit off the top and keep a fair bit of that colour. Horizontal placement looks good though. Lovely frame - thanks for sharing.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Jerry - First, welcome to the BPN Wildlife Forum. A nice first post with beautiful warm light and fall colors. Personally, I would have probably shot this wider in what we call an animalscape to include both more room for the elk but also the great fall colors at the top of the frame. Shooting wider would have also given you more options to crop later (though be careful not to crop too much so as to affect IQ or pixel bash).

    The best way to get the most out of BPN is to participate in the critique process and become part of the community. We recommend posting 3-5 comments on other wildlife images each time you post one of your own. It allows us to all learn from each other and fosters a sense of community. Your comments do not have to be technical, just tell us what you like and don't like about an image.

    Looking forward to seeing more of your wildlife images.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Welcome Jerry, lovely post here.

    I think all the nits have been covered by others already. What I, amongst others, have learned here is to not be afraid of pushing the ISO to get the settings I want - especially with modern full frame cameras, and although I've never used a 6D from what I read it responds well at high ISOs.

    That said, the light here is stunning, and emphasised my the way the colours are layered throughout the shot.

    Hope you post up some more

    Mike

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    The situation and the light are very interesting and the color of the backgound are ok. Could you try to change the position of the photo so elk will come to right and could be more dinamic..I think

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Jerry, the light here is really cool, but the image appears soft as presented, as the head is not sharp, but have you applied any sharpening within the PP stage??? If you have applied sharpening then perhaps you need to add more, or the RAW is actually soft as you were on a tripod it might not have been the SS, but camera shake or you simply lost focus? If you are not using 'back button focus' then I strongly suggest you watch Artie's tutorial (You tube) on how to use it and how to set up, via his blog. The image also appears to need a slight CW rotation. Not a lover of the RH branch, but nothing you could have done. Try to frame in camera with some room all around for the final crop and avoid hefty crops as the IQ will drop.

    No idea how far you can push the ISO on this body, but the more you get out, shoot and experiment with the camera the better even just with pets to gain more experience.

    TFS
    Steve

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