Sable

[Ken Watkins]

Taken in Mapula concession, Northern Botswana 15th March 2009

EOS 1D MkIII

500mm F4 IS hand-held

F6.3, ISO800, 1/2500

[Robert Amoruso]

Ken,

Did well getting the face clear of the FG grass. Strong light not displeasing here as no really deep shadows. Head turn and positioning of torso pleasing as the animal is entering the frame from the edge. Good sharpness on the face and eye.

[David Thomasson]

Beautiful shot, but lots of telltale halos around the subject. I'm guessing that you blurred first, and then masked out the subject? Trick of the trade: Mask first -- very carefully -- then apply lens blur to the background using the "layer mask" option inside the lens blur dialog box.

[Ken Watkins]

David,

I must admit I did not spot that, it is quite obvious when you point it out. I cannot however find lots of others. I do mask first clearly in this case I messed up in at least one particular area, for this blur I was trying out Alien Skin Bokeh and did not review the results as carefully as I should.

[David Thomasson]

David,

I must admit I did not spot that, it is quite obvious when you point it out. I cannot however find lots of others.

Please don't take this as being overly critical. I do retouching for commercial photographers, so I get a lot of
practice at spotting these things. If I didn't spot them, my clients invariably would -- and I can't afford that! :o
I learned early on that they'll notice glitches even smaller than these.

[Ken Watkins]

OK point made I did not do a good job which I admit, thanks for pointing it out. I will be far more careful next time!

[Stu Bowie]

My favourate antelope Ken. Lovely light on the head,and pin sharp too. Well captured.

[Ken Watkins]

Hi Peter,

Here is a new version no blurring just a bit of sharpening and tidying up. Strangely the "halo" is stll around the mane it is in the Raw file so must be relatively natural, although badly enhanced by my attempts at blurring the BG.