Bull Elk

[John Mack]

This image was created in Benezette, Pennsylvania on 9/27/18 at 3:39PM. Image adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hand held, Small crop.

Canon 5D MarkIV
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
302mm
ISO 1600
f5.6
1/1250sec

[Marc Mol]

You've made the best out of the flat/filtered lighting, overall techs look good, might just try a tad more NR on the BG vegetation. and possible tweaking the sky a little, but not sure without seeing the RAW as to how far you have pushed it already.

I take it John you were kneeling low? judging by the Elk's reaction here.

TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

The elk appears well focused and the colours are good. The sky I am sure could be tweaked, it is a relatively large area that is pulling my eyes from the elk, if it were textured and a little darker it would not do so.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Interesting perspective, makes this elk look so impressive. Techs look good and nice detail on the subject, I like the colours too.

Agree with above suggestions about the sky and it's worth a try, John.

Overall a nice image that does justice to this majestic animal - you must be pretty pleased with this, lovely work!

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi John ... oh i do like the low POV a lot ...albeit you included the pale sky , which is a bit unfortunate .
I do like the comp , the nice isolation from the BG and the down stare of the this nice rack .
You could give the sky a small boost in depth ... for a bit more tonal variation , if you like .

Well the colors do not seem " right " to my eyes .... better i would change the WB some points cooler , as i do see flat light / overcast . Therefor the image does look too much on the yellow side for my taste .

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

I like the POV here John and the 'aloof' look from the stag. Not much you can do with the sky, it is what it is, so personally I'm OK with it. A bit more on the LHS just for balance would be nice, although if the weather was overcast, then colours do seem a bit 'saturated'.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi John - It's great that you got to capture this one with some distance between him and the bg trees. It makes for nice separation. Good low pov and I like that he appears to be looking over you. I agree with Andreas and Steve about the temp and colors given the conditions.

TFS,
Rachel