Wolverine

Image Critiques Wildlife Critiques
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Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.

Questions to guide your feedback

Does that light log in the background distract too much from this image?

Other Information

Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.

Image Description

Taken from a hide in eastern Finland in the twilight of dusk.

Technical Details

Sony a1, Sony 200-600mm at 570mm, manual exposure, 1/500th at f/6.3, ISO 4000.

2 Likes
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Woah, what a treat it must have been to see one of these. I never have, but think they are so amazing and mysterious. The pose is just so determined and s/he has so much presence. A serious animal on a mission it says to me. I can only imagine the rush of it appearing for this really terrific photo.

The log, yeah, I’d lose it, or at least darken it more than it is. The new remove tools in Photoshop are amazing. I’ve also been lately playing with adding a blur layer in Photoshop and softening backgrounds that are just too close to my subject. It works quite well. Also the new Neural Filter called Depth Blur works for this purpose although I think a regular gaussian blur on a separate layer would do.

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3

Great body language and wonderful frame, I agree it appears to be on a mission.
Yes, I find the log in the background distracting, I may tone down the log or path it is walking on.

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4

It’s hard not to have a WOW initial reaction when the animal is something so few of us get to see. But that aside, this is still a great image. The intent look of the wolverine and the great position of him on that log, away from the background makes it more special. Before even reading your question, though, my thought was “wish that blue thing wasn’t there”. The incongruent color more than anything, I think, makes it stick out.

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5

Wonderful!!! Everything is excellent except the BG log and it could be darkened or very effectively removed with one of the variations of content-aware fill.

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Hi Kirsten, I have reprocessed the image using the techniques you suggest. Do you like this better?

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Very natural looking! Excellent. How did you find the process of doing this? It is much less time-consuming than it used to be in my experience.

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8

Not difficult at all. The remove tool works like a charm. And blurring, desaturating and a touch darkening of the background was no problem.

9

What a magnificent creature and so well captured! Love that walking stance and intent stare. The repost is a nice improvement. A fine image.

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10

Yes, the work done on the RP is perfect!!

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12

My initial reaction was “Wow! What detail! An incredibly sharp image of a Wolverine!”

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The rework looks much better, Charles!
Removing distractions like that log can have a positive impact on the image overall.

I’ve never seen a wolverine but I have seen a honey badger and apparently wolverines are larger and more aggressive according to Google.

I’m really enjoying your Finland images, Charles! :slight_smile:

Thanks! :slight_smile:

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14

Hi Charles! My initial reaction was “OMG! A WOLVERINE! AWESOME IMAGE!” I was so captured seeing the beautiful image of the wolverine I didn’t even notice the log in the background at first. I agree with others that the log should be removed, and the repost looks perfect. Excellent work!

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15

You have certainly captured the mission very well
I do agree that the log in the URC is perhaps a bit distracting
I also think that a little more space to the right may express its mission just that little bit better

1 Like