Foxy

[Spie]

Took this last August.

Cropped and levels adjusted. EOS 5D, 75-300 III @300mm, 1/[email protected], ISO400. Hand-held.

Be gentle with me

 

[Logsi]

Be gentle with me

Hehe!

Its a good shot but needs Post processing to make it a great shot! Ill have a play in aperture to see what it'll look like and ill upload it.

Have you cropped the photo at all?

Josh

 

[Spie]

Yep, cropped vertically losing around 15% from the right side.

 

[Chief Wiggum]

Hehe!

Its a good shot but needs Post processing to make it a great shot!

Josh

Agreed, I think it needs a bit more saturation and maybe contrast to make the fox jump out of the image - but that's just me

I've not really investigated levels but normally I add +19 contrast in PS and then bump up the saturation if needed....

 

[Logsi]

Yep, cropped vertically losing around 15% from the right side.

I was thinking if you had more of its body in shot it may look better but the way you have shot it, its seems as though the main focus of the shot was the expression on its face.

Had a play in Aperture and came up with this, while im not great at PP its just to show you what you can do. Have you got Lightroom at all, if not, get it!

Did a touch of sharpening, lil bit of contrast and saturation and selected different colours to boost. All done in Aperture.

Josh

 

[squiffy]

Photoshop Auto

 

[Spie]

Had a play in Aperture and came up with this, while im not great at PP its just to show you what you can do. Have you got Lightroom at all, if not, get it!

Did a touch of sharpening, lil bit of contrast and saturation and selected different colours to boost. All done in Aperture.

Josh

Nope, just using Elements 5 at the moment.

You used Aperture but suggest Lightroom. How come

 

[Logsi]

Nope, just using Elements 5 at the moment.

You used Aperture but suggest Lightroom. How come

I love Aperture but most people like Lightroom better, i also advised lightroom as i guessed you would owned a PC, i could be wrong! . Aperture is Mac only.

Josh

 

[Dup]

Its a great shot, a difficult subject matter to catch. The DOF is perfect too I feel.

However I feel the composition is way off. You should have either taken the shot from a lower angle to get the whole fox in shot with some more colour detail in the background or have taken the shot from a higher angle to get a full green background. This I feel would give the shot better contrast.

With the opportunity I would have tried a shot composed of just the head too.

http://www.duperouzel.co.uk/misc/gubbins2.jpg

The example above has a bit of contrast and sharpening added as my E-10 is knocking on a bit now, but the angle and darker background lift it off a bit.

It's still a great capture, and I'm a country lad but I've never been that close to a fox long enough to get a pic like that, so well done

 

[yak.h'cir]

I think it would work better with a closer crop around the head, it looks a bit unbalanced to me with the feet missing.

EDIT
Hope you don't mind but I couldn't resist seeing how a different crop would look:

 

[Spie]

Love the crop and I agree, looks much better.

What are you creating your frames with?

Colour shot looks a little over saturated but B&W looks great.

 

[yak.h'cir]

I used photoshop CS2, I believe there is a guide in the sticky on how to do it.

I always seem to over saturate images, I get that comment a lot! Glad you liked the crops.

 

[Messiah Khan]

My take on it;

 

[Spie]

Like that crop too. Also the colours are punchy but still natural.

So much of photography today is about post processing. I have a fair bit to learn in that area but I'm pleased I got the shot.

 

[Messiah Khan]

Do you shoot in RAW or jpg? If its the former, then post processing is essential as the camera doesn't do anything to the image. I have to say I really enjoy the post processing element of photography. It feels somewhat like being in a darkroom, and seeing that good photograph turn into a very good piece of art.

 

[Raikiri]

 

[MrSix]

Tsk tsk! 300mm @ 1/250th!

Don't you know the rule of shutter speed should never drop below your focal length?!

All ribbing aside mate, it's a lovely shot, nice to see some variations in the cropping yeilding some good results - don't let people push you in to overdoing the post processing though, some of the examples on here look dreadful! Keep things natural, it's best to attempt to make them look as natural as possible, think back to how it looked when you eyeballed the scene through the viewfinder, then try to replicate that.

Looks like you've found your feet with your new kit though

*EDIT*

Here's how I'd process them:

Three layers over them:
Colour balance - added more red and a touch more green.
Levels - boosted the midrange to bring out a little more detail ready for....
Curves - Very gentle curves to boost contrast

Finally used the unsharp mask to pick out the detail in the hairs, added a 5x5px border and saved

 

[4T5]

My take on it;

From someone who knows nothing about pics this one looks best to me. The crop centres the face which is excellent & the tweaking sorted the colours in a natural way, I like it.

When i say centred i should have said it focuses on the head, i think.

 

[Helium_Junkie]

I'm wary of the crops done, I think too much is taken out - for example the top of the ears! I like a little bit of background around the subject. Also some are simply too saturated.

I would up the saturation only a little, and crop much less aggressively.

The original shot however is just superb, I love the colour and detail in the face, the pose is brilliant, the DoF is spot on... an excellently taken photo! Amazed at the sharpness at 300mm, I definitely need a new zoom lens!

 

[MrSix]

From someone who knows nothing about pics this one looks best to me. The crop centres the face which is excellent & the tweaking sorted the colours in a natural way, I like it.

When i say centred i should have said it focuses on the head, i think.

Out of interest, you think it looks natural with the blue tint on the front of the fox's chest and the heavily clipped blacks?