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Thread: Bear cub

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    Default Bear cub

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    Hi all,

    Great to pop over to Wildlife -- such great stuff and looking forward to learning more on this end. I spent a couple days in BC shooting grizzly bears -- what an amazing experience. I have a lot to share, but will start with this one. We watched these two cubs with their mom one afternoon and while the mom and one cub totally ignored us, while this one kept checking up on everyone. This cub has a very prominent 'bald patch' thats characteristic of a lot of bears in this region.

    In post, straight forward edits, slight crop, and NR. I probably should have gone higher shutter speed, and typically did when light allowed, but just forgot here. I went wide open as the background was very close to the bears.

    Camera: Nikon D5 (rented)
    Lens: 200-500mm f/5.6 at 460mm
    Specs: 1/400 f/5.6 ISO 2,800 from a zodiac

    Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
    Alex

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Alex, nice to have you posting here and look forward to seeing more from the trip and hopefully more from your next trip too.

    Shooting from a zodiac is never easy and so yes, a higher SS min 1/1000 would have been better, likewise some more DoF ie f/11, as the eye appears sharp, but the nose I think is just tapering off. It may have also helped the fur on the LH cub too, BKG would be OK likewise Mum. Personally I think there is too much LH bear cub and I'm wondering if Mum is also dominating a little, but just having the ears in adds context so may be just a re crop if this is FF and the IQ can take it? Not a lover of the rock at the foot. I would also adjust the heavy blue cast, very noticeable in the eye & nose.


    This cub has a very prominent 'bald patch' thats characteristic of a lot of bears in this region.
    Might just knock that back a bit.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Nice to see some bears. Like the pose and eye contact you have captured here. The bear on the right isn't ideal not much you could have done about that. Must have been quite close the depth of field falls right off. The bald patch is quite neat. Hope to see more.

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    Hi Alex -- Very difficulty to get a shot from a zodiac , well done on that , but agree with your self critique reg the ss, it had to be in excess of 1/1000 atleast. Agree reg the blue cast , quite prominent in eyes and on nose. I am not sure on framing though , the lhs is a bit in excess and the rhs bear is kind of not helping here, difficult scenario to frame something amidst this kind of situation, but nothing more you could have done abt it.

    Do keep posting more images.

    TFS !

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Hello Alex,

    Great to see you posting here and sharing your experiences with us! Nice pose from this young bear and I love that cheeky look, he is quite a character isn't he?

    In your intro you mentioned renting a D5 - it is a great camera with very good ISO capabilities and I hope you had opportunities to experiment and push it to its limits. You could have gone to ISO 6000 in this instance and gained more SS. But we've all been there, too much excitement can make one forget things...

    Back to your image, I find the composition/framing a bit awkward and the colour of mom's fur draws the eye quite a bit. I guess there was not much you could do to recompose though, shooting from a Zodiac must be quite challenging. Perhaps a small crop from the LHS would help, and I have not tried it but maybe reducing the brightness of Mom's fur might make her less prominent.

    I really like the little one's mischievous look, this is what makes the image for me Worth spending a bit more time on this frame and fixing colour cast as well as rethinking composition. Hope to see more from this trip, thank you so much for sharing!

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Thanks all for your points and commenting.

    I'll take another look at the crop -- it's only slight so have more room to play with. I have a lot of 'straightforward' portraits, even of cubs, but liked this one actually due to the left and right bears and how it summed up how the middle bear was behaving, but it might be one of those 'had to see it in person' type shots, so it's excellent to get feedback on these things. Will adjust the blues too.

    Gabriela, did get a chance to push the ISO on other shots so was great to have the body, although managing two kits was new for me (and did lead to forgetting which settings I was using!). The young bears were a blast to watch play and eat
    Anyhow, for sure more to come, and appreciate the feedback all,

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Anyhow, for sure more to come, and appreciate the feedback all,
    Hi Alex, great, as we are all here to help.

    but liked this one actually due to the left and right bears and how it summed up how the middle bear was behaving, but it might be one of those 'had to see it in person' type shots,
    Spot on I think Alex, you had to be there and emmerse yourself in the whole interaction, but here, you are trying to convey that scene/encounter in one frame which is very hard.

    Just be mindful when you are processing especially in LR, contrary to what some folk may have thought or said, ramping Contrast, Black and saturation needs to be thought about carefully and with a light hand at times. Try to keep your images well exposed ie ETTR and then in PP use a delicate hand, as you want to keep all those lovely mid tones and not block it all because the boost of Contrast, Clarity and or Texture appears to make it sharper and so in terms of PP - 'less is definitely more'.

    Looking forward to more and sharing in your experiences, cheers Steve.

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