The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.
Self Critique
I like the background and the tundra. Just not sure if I am seeing banding. I did not want to cutoff too much of the foreground to set the scene as they are right at the edge of a drop off to the river below.
Also like the body posture of Mom and the visible cub.
Overall current mirrorless cameras provide a bit more sharpness to what we had 15 years ago when I shot this.
Creative direction
I was looking to capture the small size of the cub and the interaction with it’s mother.
Specific Feedback
Is there banding to the lower left area of the mother ? If so, how do I get rid of it.
15 year old image that I revisited with the new LR tools.
Technical Details
Nikon D300 with Nikon 200-400. 1/400 F6.3 ISO 400
Description
There is a second cub completely blocked by the standing cub. I liked the white ring around the upper body. Found these two above a river in Alaska where there was lots of grizzlies fishing.
Comp is fine, but the mama bear needs some sharpening, especially around its eye and around the muzzle. You might be able to reduce the horizontal banding with some masking to isolate the bears and a touch of Gaussian blur to the BG. That might reduce the banding sufficiently to make it negligible…Jim
Thanks Jim for the tips. I have been playing around running one version through DXO and the other just through LR. Then compare . The DXO version is a bit sharper overall. I will try the Gaussian blur.
Comp is fine, but the mama bear needs some sharpening, especially around its eye and around the muzzle. You might be able to reduce the horizontal banding with some masking to isolate the bears and a touch of Gaussian blur to the BG. That might reduce the banding sufficiently to make it negligible…Jim
This is a nice scene. It’s apparent that this is a different type of background (tundra) than one might find in many coastal Alaskan or Yellowstone bear shots. So I like the patchwork background.
Sharpness is an issue, as noted by others. Looks like you were battling some heat haze.
Beautiful scene and composition. However, I do see extensive banding everywhere in the BG. That, together with the lack of sharpness, makes me think it’s more of an IQ-thing, details lost in compression? It would help if you posted the original file or the large size jpeg to be able to judge what is really going on. Very cute image, though!
Grt, Ingrid.
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