Brown rat

[Jonathan Ashton]

• Jon Ashton
• Jon Ashton
• Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 16.5 (Windows)

Hand held image captured from a hide, the rat was as you might guess scavenging around for spilt bird seed and nuts.

OM-1 OM 150-400mm F4.5 TC
Focal Length (35 mm conversion) : 918.0mm
ISO Sensitivity : 10000
Shutter : 1/3200 sec
F.No. : F5.6
Exposure compensation : 0.0 EV

ACR/PSCC

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Well Jon ... person ally I do not think this is the hottest subject on planet earth , that might be down to the rats massive appearance in parts of the world where we do not really like them .
So trying to look at it as neutral as possible ...
I do like the image design with the curved tree stump and the subject seems to peek over it ...
Nice structure in the stump following the curved outline ... subject is sweet with nice. details . Eyes do look very good
Tones are solid good ... overall kind of realistic flat , personally I would burn the stump , the subject .... but lighten the BG .
Color wise ... well there is a lot of cyan/ green in the fur .... that I would address .
A touch more NR to the BG would not hurt ... noise quite obvious in the monotony of it .

TFS Andreas

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Andreas, only when you mention it do I notice some noise in the background. The rat looks OK to me, I cant see cyan/green. Part of the stump was darkened but as you say maybe some more would have been good.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

• Jon Ashton
• Jon Ashton
• Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 16.5 (Windows)

Your call Jon ... about the color , to me the cyan/blue/green is quite obvious ... proven by the color reading

I just corrected the cast ....in the subject and at reduced opacity in the stump

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, different and I quite like the inquisitiveness od the Rodent, but personally I hate them and the Kestrel site is awash with them. Will need to take something to irradiate them.

As the subject appears grey I'm surprised you couldn't get a more neutral reading but I feel a tad of Temp, Tint and reduce the blue and you are there. I would also try a 16x10 using FF width.

The noise in the BKG wouldn't print.

TFS
Steve

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Andreas, I see the difference, I really don't get why my white point was different because I took it of the rat also.

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Agreed Steve but regarding the rats how do you poisen them specifically? I suppose trapping them is a practicality.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Andreas, I see the difference, I really don't get why my white point was different because I took it of the rat also.

Not sure why you are not getting the WHITE BALANCE .... " right " . Regardless of my chosen WB in the raw conversion ... I do create color sampler points( 11x11 size ) in color critical image areas , to control the color values in the specific areas as the first step once the image is open in PS . They do stay for the whole time until it is saved as TIF or even the jpeg for web . If something is off or goes off .... during processing I can see it on the fly , albeit it might be not that obvious for my eyes in the first place . I rather trust the color samples than my eyes !!! I bet you do not have that kind of habit .... to me it is quite an easy solution for permanent color control . Everything that goes wrong can immediately be corrected , if one likes to correct it . IN the end a matter of taste and willing to work that way .
Maybe you can try to implement it in your WF

Just a thought

Cheers Andreas

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

I do like rats...but they must be Kalahari tree rats !

Just saw this now, Jon. I think it's kind of cute, the way the subject pops up from behind the log and sniffling around for some leftovers from the birds. Such gorgeous whiskers!!!

Techs look great and I hardly see any noise at ISO 10.000. Very nice composition, for me works well although I would not mind a version with more space around. Subject sharp and those glistening eyes draw the eye tremendously.

You mentioned cyan/green - I can see it, especially in the whites. Could be a reflection from the log or environment in general ( judging by the BG lots of lush green grass) but the subject would look better if you fixed the WB. Happens to me too if I stare too long at an image, best if I walk away and return a bit later, then I see those colour casts with fresh eyes.

I enjoyed viewing, like Steve said it's different and for me subject is super cute, so thank you so much for sharing!

Kind regards,
Gabriela

 

[Phill Luckhurst]

Agreed Steve but regarding the rats how do you poisen them specifically? I suppose trapping them is a practicality.

A local to me nature reserve did something odd a few years ago regarding rats. It is an odd reserve with a cafe. It used to be mainly wildlife enthusiasts that visited but in recent years has been taken over by well off mums to meet up and chat over an over priced ciffee. One of these mums saw a rat and freaked out. Lots of complaints later and all the bird feeders on site were removed. Many thousands were spent on poisons (great in a nature reserve) and other methods including letting a local gun club in regularly to shoot them. After two years of this they moved the bird feeders a bit further from the cafe and put up a warning sigh. There are no less rats than before all the money and effort was wasted, just they are less in view of people sat drinking coffee. Point is, with the exception of small islands like those ones where the albatross chicks were decimated, the horse has bolted. There really is no way of effectively reducing numbers. There is a project trying in New Zealand on a peninsular and that is having some success, but it takes constant hard work and money. Quite astonishing how in just 500 years the rat has spread from a small part of Asia to the whole planet.