9am 27 July 2016, the frost had just about dissipated, HH, Canon 1DX, Canon 100-400 L IS II, ISO 3200, 1/1250 sec, f8
ACR + PSCC 2018
This is either a rework or an image very similar to one I submitted last year.
(You may be pleased to know I have saved a PSD of this particular one because I have done quite a few adjustments in PS.)
Thanks for all for your comments on my previous images.....just going out to try for marsh harriers- wish me luck!
Tough lighting here, Jon and a very busy and detailed foreground and background which make this a hard one to work up. As the body is in shadow and looks pretty flat and inky, I feel it needs attention but I don't know there's a lot that can be done while keeping this natural in appearance. Similarly, not sure what to suggest for the background and foreground. Perhaps selecting and reducing the contrast substantially on those elements? One thing I think will help is a tighter crop to reduce the proportion of foreground and background and all the detail they add to this shot. It will make the sheep stand out more, I think. This animal certainly does have big horns and I enjoyed seeing this all the same!
Glenn your comments reflect my actions, I reduced background contrast and I worked to enhance the detail in the sheep, so I am pleased that you were thinking along the same lines.
I posted the image because I thought it was quite tricky so I look forward to further comments and if anyone wants to try the raw file I will be happy to send it.
Hi Jon - I'll take a look at the RAW and see what I can do. It does look like tricky conditions with a bit of backlighting and heavy shadows. You, of course, know that I am going to say you needed more room below for the virtual legs and then some and less above. (Hey, at least I'm consistent).
I like the backlight effect - and it is good to see that used here. I haven't subscribed to the convention that everything has to have direct front light for quite a long time now, so this suits me quite nicely. I'm even quite partial to the texture created by the background. The eye is clear and bright enough and I particularly like the puff of frosty breath.
The pose is a little prosaic but all these herbivores seem to spend too much time with their heads down!
I would probably balance the sheep a little differently in the frame, taking some more off the top, but that is my taste and inclination.
I'll have to nip over to the Avian board and see how successful you were with the harriers!
Best wishes, Gerald
Last edited by Gerald Kelberg; 11-20-2017 at 02:32 PM.
Thanks for the feed back everyone, here is a repost incorporating some of your ideas, Rachel kindly offered to look at the raw and I have included her suggestion in this rework whereby I used the adjustment brush in ACR to increase exposure selectively on the ram. I also took added a little selective clarity. I used a little negative dehaze on the breath. I did not use detail extractor on the ram this time.