Into the light.

V-Spec

V-Spec

V-Spec

Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Posts
3,698
Location
London
4:15am start this morning :( dragged my sorry ass out of bed and drove to the deer park in search of some backlit shots.

Camouflaged to the teeth and wrapped in green scrim netting, I managed to find the dominant male stag with his horde of girls, in the dark. I got setup and waited for the sun, extremely difficult to get the light right to create the ring of fire, without running all over the place and scaring them.
Would like another one with his antlers facing me, and as it gets colder hopefully some condensation/breath too.



<EDIT - added version with a little more adjustment, pretty close to the original shot>

stagorigin1.jpg


One of his wives (I think)

backlight2.jpg


Bonus heron, screaming its head off at me!

heronflight1.jpg


Was finished and on my way home at 8:30am!
 
Last edited:
That first one is lovely although it lokos like you may have over processed to get it looking like that. You may not have but that was the first thing that entered my head. Nice shot though no dount and a bit of breath would have finished it off nicely.

Second shot down I prefer as it looks natural. The heron shot is nice and better than any other heron flight shot I have (the 600 will soon fix that I hope) but it's not a patch on your recently posted one :)
 
SilverPenguin said:
That first one is lovely although it lokos like you may have over processed to get it looking like that. You may not have but that was the first thing that entered my head. Nice shot though no dount and a bit of breath would have finished it off nicely.

Second shot down I prefer as it looks natural. The heron shot is nice and better than any other heron flight shot I have (the 600 will soon fix that I hope) but it's not a patch on your recently posted one :)
Click to expand...

Cheers

I've not done that much to the first one (/getting defensive now :p), it was taken -1 stop to start with. Set the exposure minus a further stop in aperture, and the brightness down a tiny bit to get rid of the central detail, then adjusted the blackpoint slightly, to keep the ring of fire the same. I actually lifted and stamped the exact same settings to the second picture, which has had about 3 hours of selective noise reduction and layermasks afterwards :D
 
V-Spec said:
Cheers

I've not done that much to the first one (/getting defensive now :p), it was taken -1 stop to start with. Set the exposure minus a further stop in aperture, and the brightness down a tiny bit to get rid of the central detail, then adjusted the blackpoint slightly, to keep the ring of fire the same. I actually lifted and stamped the exact same settings to the second picture, which has had about 3 hours of selective noise reduction and layermasks afterwards :D
Click to expand...
lol, I'm not being picky don't worry :D
I think it is a lovely shot, I think I just prefer a hint of detail which is why i'm drawn to the second shot more.

Three hours of noise reduction?! :eek::eek: lol. What camera are you using again?
 
amazing pictures Tim, such dedication goes into your work.

i agree with what silver penguin has said about the first shot, that it maybe slighty over processed but it really is a great shot. also it might just be me but i can see a single red dot to the right of its neck half way down which is distracting.


the second shot is my favorite, truley beautiful, very natural and excellent colours.

the heron shot is excellent to. only thing that spoils it for me is the heavy shadow on its body, but this is being very nit picky.

i love seeing yor work and never found a picture you've taken uninteresting, keep it up!
 
SilverPenguin said:
Three hours of noise reduction?! :eek::eek: lol. What camera are you using again?
Click to expand...

Hehe, there was quite a lot of noise present in the dark areas which will really kill what I can do to the sharpening before it gets printed. As a result I run noise ninja, then layer mask then use a pen tablet to colour the noise out from between the hairs around it.. sounds extreme but it means I can sharpen it properly without sharpening the noise. Normal noise reduction doesn't work well enough to kill the shadow noise, and if you turn it up it removes the ultrafine hair detail (on the bottom of her neck) its time consuming but worth it, especially when in A2 and on a well lit wall.

famas said:
amazing pictures Tim, such dedication goes into your work.

i agree with what silver penguin has said about the first shot, that it maybe slighty over processed but it really is a great shot. also it might just be me but i can see a single red dot to the right of its neck half way down which is distracting.


the second shot is my favorite, truley beautiful, very natural and excellent colours.

the heron shot is excellent to. only thing that spoils it for me is the heavy shadow on its body, but this is being very nit picky.

i love seeing yor work and never found a picture you've taken uninteresting, keep it up!
Click to expand...

Cheers!

The dot you refer to on the backlit stag, is a fly! I so wanted to clone it out but somehow resisted the temptation!

Agree with the Heron to be honest, it was one of those spontaneous 10fps point and shoot moments, its a bit clinical. Think I prefer some of my portraits.
 
I've added another version of the first shot, slightly less black point and exposure adjustment in aperture, couldn't be bothered with NR so the sharpening has brought the shadow noise out a little.. On the other hand I think I may prefer it, will get rid of the noise later... I think I got a little caught up with the antlers in the first version and forgot about the rest of the pic!

janesssssy said:
Got to ask as the Wife is getting a camera and wants to know the kit you are using. Im sure it will be out of our buget but she still wants to know.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi,

I'll start by saying that you can get this shot with pretty much any sort of modern DSLR, although the lens and body are extremely expensive, you could get the same shot on a budget DSLR and decent 300mm zoom, getting close to the stag and predicting where the light will fall between the trees, then not causing disturbance when you become visible as the light hits you/they smell you.

Lens is over £5k if you buy from UK (Canon 600 F4 IS)

Body is, around £2.4k from UK (1D MkIII)

Tripod/head (Gitzo 1541LS - Wimberley MkII) £1200

Its a lot of money, but you get what you pay for. Don't let it put you off though. You might ask why I spent that sort of money? Reason is - I love wildlife and want pretty much the best possible quality I can.. I want to try and make a name for myself as a natural history photographer in years to come, once the gear is bought I can pretty much forget about it and just concentrate on reading the weather forecast/setting my alarm clock!

If your Wife is interested in Wildlife photography, I'd recommend a Nikon D300, or Canon 40D, both can be had for a decent saving from evilbay, get a zoom lens of 300mm minimum. Unless your only ever planning on visiting the zoo/photographing elephants!
 
Last edited:
janesssssy said:
Got to ask as the Wife is getting a camera and wants to know the kit you are using. Im sure it will be out of our buget but she still wants to know.

Thanks
Click to expand...

From his flikr link, a Canon EOS 1DMK III and a 300mm F/2.8 for starters.

If you remortgage your house you might afford it.
 
V-Spec said:
I've added another version of the first shot, slightly less black point and exposure adjustment in aperture, couldn't be bothered with NR so the sharpening has brought the shadow noise out a little.. On the other hand I think I may prefer it, will get rid of the noise later... I think I got a little caught up with the antlers in the first version and forgot about the rest of the pic!
Click to expand...
Looks better than the first I think. I know what you mean about getting carried away with the rim light. I had a shot (not as nice as this) a couple of years ago and I was so intent on getting the light to stand out I made the erst of the picture look a bit off.
 
Shot #1 for me...perfect silhouette, good work there :)

edit: Just seen the update, the original image is even better
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom