A fall from a tree while inspecting a birding house keeps my mobility low at the moment, so I must go back to last winter to post something here.
We had an unexpected encounter with a group of wild boars, late in the afternoon. They were digging for food in the snow and hardly paid us attention. I had several minutes to shoot them before they disappeared in the fading light.
This is one of the images I like. Unfortunately, another animal is visible behind the main subject.
Specific Feedback Requested
As I mentioned, there is a third animal behind the legs of the main. I wouldn’t have cared if it had searched for food somewhere else. Does it bother you?
The eyes of the pigs are dark and somewhat sunken in the head. It often makes them less visible. I dodged the area a bit. How do you appreciate the result?
Any other comments are welcome too.
Technical Details
Pentax K3 Mk.iii, ISO3200, 1/400s, f/5.6. Sigma 4/100-300mm @300mm. RAW conversion in DxO PL5, curve adjustments, eye dodged.
No crop.
The subject has provided you with a nice pose and a clear view of its snoot. Exposure looks pretty good and a minor suggestion is to see what additional detail can be pulled from the darks and brightest parts of the in-focus areas of the image. Well done and I hope you have a speedy recovery…Jim
Great snowy goodness here though. I really like the contrast it brings up on the snout. It would be nice to see some detail in the ears and the legs, but it’s hard to do and make snow white at the same time. Wild swine is so interesting…we don’t have anything but feral European introduced pigs here, but these are so bristly and interesting. I don’t mind the other pig being there…they are herd animals after all. Too bad it’s mooning us!
Sorry about your injury. This is a beautiful capture, Han! The boar really looks quite magnificent with that pose. I see what you mean about the one right behind him. At first I thought it was a part of him, like a tail that I didn’t know they had! I think it would be an outstanding image if it weren’t for that photobomb. But not much we can do about getting the animals to pose right!
Thank you, @Vanessa_Hill , @Kris_Smith and @Jim_Zablotny , for your comments (and wishes ).
I got some extra detail in the dark parts from the raw file, using the old trick of increasing the exposure in the software and I made an “HDR” with the 2 exposures. The overall contrast of the image is lower, but the few details that were present in the ears and the legs are visible now. The original exposure in the camera was a bit short, to prevent blowing the snow, not favorable for the darkest parts. Especially not with a relatively high ISO.
I think, that I prefer the first image, with less detail in the darkest parts, but with a higher overall contrast.
I like this little scene with a somewhat unusual subject species, Han! I don’t see many photos of wild Boars! The detail on the foreground animal is great and I think I actually prefer the first post. Somewhere between the two would be ideal for me though.
).
