I didn't save the exif along with the jpg while processing and now I am finding it difficult to locate the RAW file to put the exif here .. Sorry about that
Subharghya,
Nice capture. Cute fellow. I disagree with David and Harshad regarding light. The sun was overhead as can be clearly seen from the shadows. Reducing the colour temperature would make the scene more natural.
The image is sharp. I like the eye contact. Though this is a bit centred, I like the inclusion of the rocks on the lower left corner. I wish there was more space to the right, as I can see some grasses on the lower right corner. Inclusion of more grasses on the lower right corner would have balanced the frame better. I hope you can find the raw file. Look forward to more.
Hi Subharghya,
Actually, I like this as presented (minus the large black frame). I was going to recommend cropping a bit off the rH side to get the deer off center.....but I like the way there is just a hint of taller grasses there and feel the LH rocks and shadow area at the top balnces nicely with the rest. Very nice job.
He is a cute little guy and it is nice that you got good eye contact. I like the warm light (cloudy or shade WB?) as mammals normally look better in this type of light. As for centering, you've got him a bit off-center so the composition looks pretty good to me. The rocks on the left help balance the image as well. Nicely presented.
Hi Subhargya, its a beautiful picture, very sharp and well exposed. I totall agree with Sabhyasachi's comment on including more grass on the right hand corner to balance the frame. Congrats!!
Thanks to All of Your Friends for your feedback and appreciations :)
Sabyasachi this is shot at 73 in February morning .. The sun is at about 35-40 degrees so the light was not harsh at all .. May be due to grass the shadow is not properly visible which is giving an impression of high sun :) .. I personally don't like more space behind my subject so I initially thought of cropping more from right but the tall grasses were so beautiful that I felt I can include them to some extent without harming the balance of the composition .. my eyes are flowing from right to left in this image so any more space behind the baby will become less useful and I wanted to keep the baby to right hand third of the frame so that too force me to keep less space behind it
Beautiful portrait. It does appear to me that a warming filter has been applied or something, maybe, it's the luminosity of the grass that give a different feel (impression of a different time of day) to the image. And/Or it might be the typical Ranthambhore habitat which gives that impression, perhaps.
But knowing Das babu very well... his words from the above post are good enough for me. Lovely light !
BG could use some blur to get rid of the grains (?)
Last edited by Kiran Khanzode; 08-10-2009 at 01:42 PM.
Subharghya,
I would like to restate what I had mentioned earlier. I had said nice capture. Neither I tried to find any faults with the image nor had any intention to. I was only commenting on the light. The quality of light is an often misunderstood subject in wildlife photography.
As far as I understand Shadows tell a story. In this image one can clearly see two shadows. One on the neck and the other on the ground behind the Sambar.
Even if you say that the grass has hidden the shadow and makes it appear shorter, there is some empty space behind the shadow and the grass at the right. If we look at the shadow of the face on the neck, it appears that the sun was high up. I may be wrong. However, I don't mind being proved to be wrong, as that is how we all learn.
I trust you. However, for improving our understanding, it would be good if you can upload a screen grab of your processing of this image, so that everybody here can see the as shot colour temperature. It would be a great learning experience for all us.
Sabyasachi, here are two screenshots - DPP & Photoshop .. Hope this will clear matter even more :) .. Note the shooting time - 12th Feb 2008 732 hrs and I had used Daylight White Balance which should be 5100 K in Temp .. unfortunately DPP does not show the equivalent Temp value
Kiran, Note the PS screenshot - there is not filter applied :) .. Ranthambhore is a Magical place .. Come to experience it :D
Subharghya,
Thanks for taking the pains to upload the screen grabs.
The comment and the assumption was that you had increased the white balance during post processing. However, from your screen graps, we can see that the increase in colour temperature was not during post processing but during photographing (via selecting the WB to daylight which is around 5500K). Nevertheless, there is an increase.
If you use AWB and import your photo to lightroom and (I guess ACR as well), you can see the colour temperature. The precise way of selecting white balance is to use the eye dropper tool rather than the the daylight or other presets which are particularly less useful. You can get colours, that may please our aesthetic sense, but which is not always right from a natural history point of view.
Also, in DPP you have the Standard Picture style selected. If you use Neutral picture style, it would be different.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Last edited by Sabyasachi Patra; 08-12-2009 at 01:55 AM.
Sabyasachi I feel you missed something .. I have shot it with daylight WB and it was clear morning and Canon's WB works very well in clear daylight .. also I tried to find out the actual Temp of this WB in DPP by manually selecting the color temp and comparing with "As Shot" .. I found that it is about 5100 K .. Sometimes it's difficult to judge a mammals fur color when they are young and believe me the baby was quite reddish like this .. Have you ever shot Sambar's of Ranthambhore? They have a little different fur color .. have a look - http://www.indianaturewatch.net/disp...e.php?id=42695 & http://www.indianaturewatch.net/disp...e.php?id=55000
Subharghya,
You mean to say that Sambar's found in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve are endemic? And hence look different from the rest of the country?
I have photographed Sambar's licking salt in Ranthambhore in my slide days. You may not know, I hardly photograph deer or Sambar, unless and until they is some great interaction or some good behaviour is on display. Else, would have shared.
Similarly, the meadows/ grasslands in Ranthambhore were not bordering on brownish colour.
During my initial digital days, I used to artificially warm the images. At that time, I was unable to detect the impact of increased colour temperature, higher contrast when the light was not contrasty etc. Today I can. I have seen some good photographers who have ruined their images by one single stroke ie. liberal use of the WB slider. I thought of pointing it out here, as I think in this forum the level of maturity of photographers in accepting feedback is high.
I have pointed out without any malice. If you insist, then all of us will simply agree with you. It is upto you as to how you want to take the feedback.
Guys,
Don't we all shoot in RAW just so we can "fix" the white balance ?
Am I the only one getting the impression that AWB is 'THE' WB to use (color temps from the digic-3,4 processors are to be obeyed, no matter how blue/red an image might look) and Subharghya's use of Daylight WB or tweaking of color temp(if any) was a sin ? :-)
Especially on a website like BPN where PP (super clean BG, cloning/blurring/sharpening and the head turn, of course) is given a LOT of importance and motivation, I would assume that tweaking WB should be allowed, right ? Or is it against any forum rules ? :-).
There's a fun discussion in this thread and I echo their views very much.
Sabyasachi I am mature enough to take any constructive feedback but I felt that you got an opinion that I am hiding facts .. I got this impression because when I said the sun was not high, you expressed doubt .. when I said the grass is giving an impression of short shadow and mentioned the time, then too you were in doubt !! So from that point the discussion turned away from the image critique .. When Kiran said the colors are warm I didn't mind and he accepted when I said I haven't used any warming filter in PS he took my word but in your case I had to prove by showing the screen shots ... This is what turned things bitter for me ... I am sorry if I am sounding rude but I don't mean any hard feelings .. I mainly want to have the pleasure of sharing the beautiful moments from the Natural World !
I am a mutimedia professional and I work with colors day in and day out so I can judge how far I have gone off course from reality .. Sometimes I do get carried away but mostly I try to stick to the true colors of the scene ...
I don't want to go into any debate on mammals fur colors but from my personal experience as well as what I have learned from some experienced people of this subject, I can state that Mammal's fur colors vary a lot within same species .. Tiger's fur show lots of variations in the yellow shade itself from different regions of India and also at different stages of growing up .. so is true for leopards ... so will you call them endemic sub-species then ??
I feel I do not like to proceed on this argument any further as this has come a long way further from the image critique itself ... If you feel this image's color tones are unnatural then I accept your views but I like it this way !
Hi Kiran .. Buddy !! You have nailed it on the head :) .. When you wrote this comment I was writing mine :) .. I feel Wildlife Photography is about telling a story .. freezing a moment which leaves an impression in the viewer's mind .. this is my view of Wildlife and Nature Photography ... Sometimes we get distracted from enjoying the beauty of the moment when we start too much pixel-peeping :)
Baby Sambar Deer
3 in February morning .. The sun is at about 35-40 degrees so the light was not harsh at all .. May be due to grass the shadow is not properly visible which is giving an impression of high sun :) .. I personally don't like more space behind my subject so I initially thought of cropping more from right but the tall grasses were so beautiful that I felt I can include them to some extent without harming the balance of the composition .. my eyes are flowing from right to left in this image so any more space behind the baby will become less useful and I wanted to keep the baby to right hand third of the frame so that too force me to keep less space behind it
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