White-tail buck

[John Mack]

This image was created in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on 12/4/19 at 8:49AM. Image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hand held, Medium crop.

Canon 5D MarkIV
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
600mm
ISO 800
f6.3
1/640sec

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the tones on this one, there is good detail and DOF is spot on. You could make the background a little more amorphous in terms of tone but that's how it was so is there anything wrong with portraying the reality? A little light and dark does not spoil the image for me.
I have just noticed he does not appear to have any eyelashes does he? I like the details around his nose and that water droplet too.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi John looks better than previous posting . Nice solid portrait and glad you got the eye illuminated .
Wonder where all the noise is coming from at Iso 800 , visible without pixel peeping

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello John,

Indeed this looks good, love that bit of light on the subject, the colours and tones, well framed. I like the pose too. Lovely detail on the subject and good sharpness. DoF is spot-on.

About that noise in the BG - it's not too bad, but noticeable. Wondering if the image was perhaps underexposed? A frame taken at relatively low ISO and underexposed will have more noise than an image taken at higher ISO and (therefore) correctly exposed. This is why some photographers choose to shoot ETTR, they are trying to minimise noise in low light. A bit tough here as you already have those whites/HL on the subject's neck ( by the way, do you keep an eye on the histogram when you shoot?) but my guess is, you might have raised exposure in LR (or PSCC), and maybe opened up the shadows, which could have caused the noise in the BG. It would be good to know your processing steps and whether you made those adjustments selectively or applied them to the entire image.

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Sorry Gabriela ... the noise is even clearly visible in lighter areas of the BG , in the darker parts more though , but that is the nature of noise visibility . Just wondering why it is noisy at ISO 800 ....
But an easy fix with the right piece of software .... and important ... at the right time in the process !!!

[Gabriela Plesea]

All I could think of, is lifting of blacks or shadows or raising exposure. At ISO 800, what else could bring about the noise - any thoughts? Perhaps a curve adjustment? Beats me John can perhaps take another look at the RAW and find the answer...

[John Mack]

Thanks folks. The answer is this was about three stops underexposed. I was being lazy per usual and didn't do anything about the noise.

[Andreas Liedmann]

OK John thanks for the additional info .... does not cost much time to get rid of the noise and you get a better looking result . Albeit i think ....3 stops under should go somewhere .... , but this is just me

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you John, makes sense.

Don't be lazy, LOL, you are producing some stunners when you put in the time and effort

Have a lovely day,