Is the processing of the cow moose reasonable? To my eye it seems to blend in a bit more than I’d like, but I’m unsure which way to go to giver her a bit more pop.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
The object of this image is to make people take a second look and find the calf hidden in the willow scrub. Is it effective at that?
Any pertinent technical details:
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 468 mm, hand held, f/8, 1/1000, iso 1600, aperture priority, pattern metering, -1/3 EV. Processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped to 16.3 MP. Taken outside Nome, Alaska on June 6th at 8:46 am.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
I totally missed the calf until you pointed it out. If you wanted a little more overt pointers at the calf, I’d crop a little from the right and top, effectively “moving” the calf a little more toward the center of the frame. Nice pic of a nice moose. I’m guessing from the vegetation that it’s a Shiras?
Moose are one of my favorite subjects to photograph. You have a nice sharp image of her in common surroundings. Overall, it seems overexposed to me, with highlights blown on the back of her neck. Also, it is a bit tilted up on the right. Sometimes to separate a subject from the environment, I’ll use the adjustment brush to paint the subject, do local sharpening/clarity and then decrease clarity/sharpness overall. In this case I think you could play with the radius tool and lower exposure and/or clarity & sharpness around her.
I looked at your image full screen before reading your description and I did not see the calf.
Dennis: the image is over exposed and is tilted to the left a bit. I think that an exposure adjustment followed by establishing a black point would bring up the contrast. You could also selectively darken the water to make the moose stand out even more. The calf is too hidden to be easily noticed. Richard
Hi Dennis, I like the pose of the Moose and seeing it in its habitat. As pointed out its a bit tilted to the left. I played around with this in PS. For what it’s worth, I’d crop some off the left which might make the calf easier to see. There is also a fair amount of blue in the moose. I’d try to darken the background so the moose stands out more. A fun shot and a nice close-up look. Lucky.
Come on folks, surely I’m not the only person who saw that calf in there???
I agree with the suggestions to tone down the highlights overall a bit, and also use a brush to darken and tone down the contrast in the willows.
Nice one. Given that it was June 6, I would be interested in how big that calf was.
