Strolling Buck

Image Critiques Wildlife Critiques
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Strolling Buck
Strolling Buck1500×1500 736 KB

I don’t shoot wildlife much, but I am willing to expend some pixels on on that crosses my way. This was captured in Beaver Meadows at rocky Mountain National Park. I ran a series of images by some friends and the consensus along with mine, was that was the best image largely because the buck stood out from the background and there were no big distractions. Surprisingly, my German Shorthair Pointer mix dog, Sawyer was quiet the whole time. Thank you Sawyer for not spooking this deer away.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I worked on this image over a couple of days. The image is heavily cropped, I then increased the pixel intensity with Gigapixel. I removed some snow in the trees by cloning to remove them as a distraction. Overal I’m happy with the image; interesting to hear other feed back.

Technical Details

1/250 sec f/8 ISO 200 24-120mm f/4 @ 120. Focus on the deer’s head was a little soft, I increased the sharpness, after experimenting with several different software techniques. I settled on Topaz AI, then blended it, with a mask with a background layer, because the Topaz AI oversharpend the body of the deer too much.

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It is nicely composed and very well captured !
The buck looks regal even with imperfect antlers.

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Thanks for your comments. A friend suggested I repair the antlers, but I thought they better reflected the challenges of a buck in the local herd.

1 Like
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Definitely leave the antlers! What a powerful portrait. That head and neck! He’s in his prime for sure, but has to be vigilant and defend it. What a beauty and I’m glad your dog let you get him.