Thirsty Bear

[Rachel Hollander]

This adult bear came down for a drink. Unfortunately with the bear leaning down to drink it put most of the face in shadow.

Canon 5D3
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/1000
f5.6
ISO 400
HH, cropped to about 75% of ff, levels, curves, TK luminosity masks, color adjustments, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Rachel, a nice behavioural image of the bear with nice reflection. Only wish the water was less murky 9so reflection was better) and the face was better illuminated but not a big deal.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Rachel, you set yourself something of a challenge here. The face/side of head is just a bit dark I like the rest of the bear. There is quite a difference between highs and lows maybe consider a twin process approach? The reflection in the water can look improved with a bit of Dehaze filter. WDYT?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel ...agree with Sanjeev a nice behavior shot , not many drinking images been posted as far as i remember .
I do like the overall tone and color combo , nice details and not much you could do about the bears face being in the shadow . As light does look kind of being harsh already , so i think you did well .
Not too fuzzed about your portrait format , i think landscape would have been a better choice . Just my 2 cents. As the river bank does not add too much to the image .

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, being head on to the bear (without being confrontational to him/her) I feel may have been a better angle and lying flat down, but no idea on the environment.

Agree on the shadow not being ideal, but loosing about a third of the FG would help, it's too washed out and bringing nothing to the capture, but creating some more depth and tone in the water does help and to me adds the weight. It also appears mottled in it's nature which is surprising for ISO400. Do you have any shots landscape with the reflection in as it would be nice to see for comparison, as the bear would be there for a while and so always good to shoot both formats once you have the shot 'in the bag'. There is nice detail, but I think it's hidden too much in the darks. I would also reduce the blue and either magenta or purple coming through in the water.

I'm not loving the fact I've cropped more, but there is detail to come out and just to illustrate my thinking on the water, but it still retains a lot of the original features.

TFS
Steve

[Glenn Pure]

Coming in after quite a few comments on which I agree, Rachel: I do think this would be better as a landscape format (and maybe a little CW rotation). Steve's repost has brought out a lot more form in the fur and intensity of colour but I'm thinking it might be a bit too much. Somewhere between the two maybe. You've already noted the difficult lighting and the resultant compromises but I think this works fine given these circumstances.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. No horizontal images while the bear was drinking. I was trying to avoid a lot of unattractive mud by going vertical. Steve - no way to get lower because the bank I was on was higher than across the stream/slough where the bear was. I was already down on the ground. I do have a couple with the head raised that gives more light on the head but then the bear isn't actually drinking in that image. I'll post one at some point. I think the rp is too much of a crop and has also gone much too dark in the water/reflection for my taste and the actual conditions. Thanks though.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[keith mitchell]

Rachel my only little thought was the face being a little dark but can see how that would happen with the direction of the light,that apart looks like a very nice natural image.

Keith.