Don't Follow Me; I'm Heading Under that Rock

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
1

Cropped to Emphasize Sharper Area (tricky given proximity of oof rear legs and front legs):

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IMG7D-6454-2NPNWebLrg-32000Ă—1600 1.56 MB

Different Frame for Naturalists Among Us (not as interesting without eye contact and not really any sharper plus weird white rock near head):slight_smile:

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IMG7D-6447-2NPNWebLrg2000Ă—1000 1.76 MB

Original post

Image(s)

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IMG7D-6454-2NPNWebLrg-2.jpg2295Ă—1530 2.65 MB

Image Description

I came across this lovely lizard in the Alvord Desert of Eastern Oregon. This was the same trip as my image of the gorgeous coyote in the little oasis in the town of Fields. I believe it’s a long-nose leopard lizard, not uncommon to the area, but I’m not 100% certain of that. Its spots are a little different, but that could be age, sex, time of year, environment.

Feedback Requests

I’m mainly just dipping into the archives to share as part of the weekly challenge. Back in 2011, I ran this through a bunch of Nik plug-ins, including Viveza, Sharpener, and their Denoise. It was fun to go back to the raw file and do it all in LR.

  1. Is the focus too soft on the legs/tail?
  2. Is the tail leaving the frame a deal breaker? This dude was looong!
  3. Any suggestions for reducing the background distractions?

Pertinent Technical Details

Canon 7D with 24-105mm at 24mm
ISO 125, 1/60, f5.6

2

Marylynne, as an avowed sharpness nut, I’d like to see more of this lizard sharp, say hind legs to nose. It’s pattern is nicely distinctive even as it blends well with the surroundings. With the tail cut off, I’d suggest that if you have more room above and to the right, you cut even more of the tail off to make it clearly deliberate. The head turn is a fine benefit.

1 Like
3

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, sharpness was an issue. I have no idea why I was shooting at 5.6, but another frame right before was 8.0 and not much better. The 7D Mk 1 in general was not great for sharpness.

I posted a “bust” of the lizard above, and a different frame, mainly for comparison. None of these are going to get printed and put on a wall. The bust is about 20% of the original frame.

ML

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I do like the crop, it nicely emphasizes the body and head (which are reasonably sharp), making for a good “portrait”, especially with the head turn. I’d say you cropped just right.