Backlit Bear Silhouette

[Rachel Hollander]

I'll start us off with this month's theme of Backlit or Silhouette Images with one that is both and definitely another marmite like shot. I shot it vertical to eliminate some pesky gulls but now wish I had more room in front and less above. Taken at low tide in the early morning at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge. The techs look strange but done to get the silhouette effect which was done partly in camera and then augmented in pp.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 340mm
1/1500
f9.5
ISO 800
HH, slight crop to straighten, levels, curves, color adjustments (reduced blues), sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Jonathan Ashton]

Love it Rachel my only reservation is the format, I would have liked a little more lateral space.

[Mike Poole]

Great rim lighting, particularly with the warm tones on the bear against the cooler BG temps. I get the feeling we may see some 'original' shooting techs this month!

Mike

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A very nice silhouette of the bear Rachel. Nice tones here with the only nit being more space to the left as we see it. But understand your point and appreciate it. TFS.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jon, Mike and Sanjeev and yes, I said in the intro I would love to have more space to the left. Those pesky gulls

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel , a very nice one to start off the theme .
All does look good in general i think , like the trotting pose of the bear and that he is almost parallel to the sensor .
Well the crop ......you know yourself .
Overall i think the image could be warmed up , the water and mudflats are a bit too cool for my taste, but this might be just me.
TFS Andreas

[John Mack]

Very nice. The reflection is my favorite part of this frame. The rim lighting on the bear is nice as well.

[Glenn Pure]

Rachel, thanks for kicking off the theme. As you've noted, not an ideal crop on this one but seems you had little choice. The lifted foot and sense of motion is very nice and the reflection really adds but for me the image is too contrasty with the foreground and background so bright in many parts. I know the theme is backlighting but just feel this one is a bit strong for my taste - sorry.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas, John and Glenn for the comments and suggestions, they are much appreciated.

[Stuart Philpott]

Happy new year Rachel cheers for everything.

I actually really like the portrait format,I hear you and of course you had some leeway with the zoom,but it works for me. I might have actually included the gulls something interesting might have happened,I know little of bears

The bright tones affect me aswell Rachel but maybe for a different reason to Glenn,..........I think...feel this image needs to be displayed on a differing colour bkg to what I see in BPOTN for it be viewed at it's best Rachel?? This is interesting I've never felt this before,one might consider hi key images to invoke the same response,but they never have. any way slightly left field

Lovely frame happy new year kiddo

stu

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Stu. You do know that you can change the bg or color of BPN using the pulldown menu at the very bottom of the page below the calibration strip, right?

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- This is superbly done , loved the silhouette and the reflection , crop seems a bit odd but you have already mentioned abt it . overall a very nice image . TFS !

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, agree with Jon, going landscape would have been better, allowing room for the Bear to walk into. I also think f/9.5 is a bit more than you needed for this type of shot, 5.6 would have been OK.

TFS
Steve