On my way to work, I always pass a field with several hares in it, which I have been wanting to photograph for a long time now. They all have their own territory in which they build one or several lairs, one of which is close to the cycling way. These are shallow hollows in the ground, in which they can flatten their body to become very hardly visible in case of danger. This is exactly what this one did as I stumbled clumsily into a ditch to get a low angle. I had to wait for quite some time before it to poked out its head to check whether that weird guy in the ditch had already gone, giving me ample time to install my camera.
Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld with image stabiliser, focal length 83 mm (500mm DSLR equivalent), ISO100 F/4.2, 1/400 sec, pattern metering, RAW
RAW editing: Silkypix, EC -1/3, auto WB, increased sharpness, strong contrast, NR 20.
Cropped in Photopaint to about 60%. Cloned away a grass leaf in front of the eye. Selective contrast and brightness enhancement on the eye.
Tell me what you think! I still have the feeling something is not quite right with this image, but I can't put my finger on it.
Love the little guy Any small "object" in frame will look better in a corner. Not 100% but very close. Re posted so you can judge !!! .... sure wish I could see these guys on my bike rides !!! :)
Great advice, Alfred, it does look much better!
Gus, the thought had indeed crossed my mind to do so. I'll try out your suggestion this evening and will post it here if succesful. It will undoubtedly add to the feeling of vastness of the grass.
Thanks for looking and your suggestions!
- Jerry -
Dear Gus, just tried your pano crop suggestion and I like it! Combined with Alfreds suggestion to keep the hare in the corner, it resulted in this image.
Thanks again for your suggestions!
- Jerry -
Great to see you here on BPN!!! It's a great place isn't it? Hope the advice you get here will be able improve your photography!
Regarding the shot, I totally agree with the others on the composition! This is a nice shot which would be improved by altering the composition like Al's and Gus's pano compositional suggestions are. I urge you to try for a lower angle as well next time you drive by this hare field. It will increase your distance to the background (BG) and similtaniously will increase the distance from the subject to its BG, creating more pop to the subject with a nicer smoother BG. Also your autofocus will probably be able to really catch on to your subject getting softness issues out of the way. The image is sharp enough but still it could have been sharper in my humble opinion. By taking a lower angle you would also take away the feeling of this grassy vastness and I can understand this is not what you wanted to go for here. In that case using a tripod or going for a smaller aperture are both good options to create more sharpness. For instance you could have dropped down to 200ISO and created some room to play around with the aperture. Apart from that this is nicely seen shot and such a cool subject with some good light. When you get photoshop please let me know, maybe we can get together so I can give you a few pointers.
Hope to see much more from you!
Cheers
Krijn
Last edited by Krijn Trimbos; 09-26-2008 at 07:46 AM.
Hey Krijn, thanks for a very warm welcome! It is indeed a great place, I already learned a lot. I hope it shows in my future images.
Reg. the hare: I tried to get lower, but then this little guy became nearly invisible! Good tips on BG though. I think the lack of sharpness results from the significant cropping I had to do due to lack of magnification. I did like the grassy vastness, the hare was really bathing in a sea of grass, which I tried to capture here. I'm afraid I can't have another go at this, I saw that the farmer had let a herd of cows in the field today. All the grass was grazed or trampled down and there was no hare in sight. Better luck next time!
See you around!
- Jerry -
Motif: Hiding hare
