A raccoon with a particularly subby tail has been hanging out in the neighborhood visiting various birdfeeders. Getting a sunflower seed stuck to your nose is an obvious side-effect.
I took this just an hour ago or so as the sun was edging behind the trees. Still a good amount of reflected light even if the scene is a bit messy.
Specific Feedback Requested
I’m still learning the fine art of wildlife photography and will take any and all feedback. It’s a tad soft and so I think a higher shutter speed would have been better - it was having a sniff of the crisp air and so moving just a bit. I should have dialed that up as well as the ISO since I had the room.
In terms of processing, let me know if there are too many weird spots after I cloned some branches out - I also used the stamp tool on parts, but tried not to be obvious about it. Oy.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Lumix G9
Leica DG 100-400mm f/4-6.3 @ 280mm (560mm equiv.)
f/6.3 | 1/400 sec | ISO 250
Handheld on my front porch braced against a post that holds up the roof
Processed in Lr for white balance, highlight control & to reduce blues/purples in shade. Added clarity, texture and lit up the eyes a bit. A gentle curve to bring up the mids and keep the darks rich. Cropped an annoying raspberry branch out above it and used Ps to remove other branches that were too near the head and body.
Nice catch – the poor thing looks cold! The ground is a bit messy but I can’t fault reality. I’d think about bringing up the darks just a bit. I don’t see direct evidence of cloning branches but you missed a couple of shadows on the right.
Hi, Kris. Raccoons are always fun to shoot, though they can become a bit of a nuisance, at times. Personally, I would probably have gone ahead and cropped out the base of that tree, and lightened the raccoon just a bit. But, those are small, personal opinion things. Overall, very nice.
