Same family, different pose

[Stan Cunningham]

This is the same sow and 2 blond cubs a day later.
Canon 7D, 70-200 2.8 at 200 mm, ISO 400.
Very little post processing; a significant crop (@50%) and some sharpening.
I like this one due to the pose primarily and the story it tells.
I am concerned if I over sharpened. Thought about cloning some of the taller brown grass stalks but since they don't cover the faces I left them alone.
Comments always appreciated.
Stan

[Morkel Erasmus]

Such a lovely scene here Stan! I felt you could 'get a bit more out of it'...so if you'll indulge me...

I felt it was a tad bright - so to tone that down I did a luminosity mask on the "light" tones.

Channels >> RGB >> circle icon at bottom of palette to make selection >> CTL+J to layer selection >> double click layer for blending mode >> set to multiply >> set opacity to taste (I chose 50%)

I also felt the bears needed a bit of 'punch' so did a quick selection of just the bears, then:
LCE (Local Contrast Enhancement): Unsharp Mask >> 20%,10px
Also added some sharpening using Smart Sharpen >> 125%, 0.2px

Let me know what you think?

[Robert Amoruso]

This one came out well Stan and Morkel's tweaks is just what the doctor ordered.

[Stan Cunningham]

I agree with you Robert on Morkel's adjustments. Thanks alot Morkel, I'm on my laptop for a couple days but anxious to get home and walk through your steps on my desktop with a color calibrated monitor Friday. I've got another 6 to 8 images of that group in the same area the same time period that will benefit a lot from your suggestions. Almost every day I learn a little more about Photoshop but the learning curve is steep.
Stan

[Rachel Hollander]

Stan - a cute family grouping and Morkel's tweaks really take the image up a notch.

TFS,
Rachel

[DanWalters]

Nice low angle and I like the alert pose of all three bears.

[Grant Atkinson]

Good work here Stan, love the pose and the attentive stares, makes me want to know what they were looking at. Like the composition and inclusion of habitat. Morkels repost improves contrast and sharpening. I am sure you will end up with a very good bear shot here when processed from scratch. Might just be me but it feels like it may need a tiny bit of clockwise rotation...but as nobody else noticed it, may just be me off-centre today
TFS

[gail bisson]

A beautiful shot! Morkel's repost makes this pop.Very nice comp. I think Grant is correct about a hint of rotation. I like how all the bears are looking in the same direction.
Gail

[Marina Scarr]

Love the family portrait and Morkel did a nice job with tweaking. I am going to try out the technique myself. I think it is possible this picture could use a slight bit of CW rotation. However, since I don't have a reflection or horizon or something to go by it's really difficult to tell, so it's a gut thing.