Fallow deer(Dama dama) taking off

[Bretoteanu Dan]

• Canon EOS-1D X
• ƒ/5.6
• 400mm
• 1/1000s
• ISO 3200
• Flash not fired
• Sun, 01 November 2020 3:20 PM
• Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabel Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> Hy everybody Merry Christmas! Managed to stalk a fallow deer quite close before it became aware of my presence. Tried to ETTR, so techs were 1/1000, f 5.6 and +1 EC at ISO 3200. First mistake was the SS, should have gone higher than 1/1000, dont know why I didnt do that, there was time enough. He wasn't paralel to me, he jumped into the brush at a slight angle. Second, given the clipped patches of grass, maybe I should have compensated the exposure less than +1, maybe 2/3 or even 1/3? Any advice on how should I have exposed is welcome

In DPP I lowered the exposure by-0.17, raised the shadows by 2 and lowered the highlights by 5. I set the WB to daylight, then in the color adjustment tab I raised the saturation from 100 to 120.

Transfered it to CS 6 where I used the levels adjustment, I alt clicked on the black triangle, moved it to the right from 0 to 10. Curves wise I tried, but nothing came out of it so I let it go. I selected the subject, applied a layer mask and increased the saturation by 5. I cropped to 1920 width, then sharpened the subject with SS using 75% amount, 70% fade amount for shadows and 80% for highlights. Slightly cropped from bottom and LHS, but I cant tell the percentage.

 

[John Mack]

Tricky to expose here, if you expose for the deer you blow that water and grass out and any other light areas. Expose for the highlights the deer will be under in some parts. Overcast light would have been your friend here. I do like the pose and the leap. The water splash at the rear is nice.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

• Canon EOS-1D X
• ƒ/5.6
• 400mm
• 1/1000s
• ISO 3200
• Flash not fired
• Sun, 01 November 2020 3:20 PM
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 9.4 (Macintosh)

Hi Dan, good to see you out and about, weather here has been crap, plus lockdown is getting even tighter, so envious that you can still get out to shoot.

Light wasn't on your side and the water was too problematic, echoed by John, good to see you chiming in here John with feedback. Because the stag was backlit it would throw the metering out, so changing the metering may have helped here. Exposing for the subject reduced you SS and upped the ISO, with changing the metering and perhaps under exposing may have meant some juggling within PP but... and you still would have had blown HL's. I'm just wondering if perhaps you let it all go dark and go for more of a 'scene setting/habitat' shot, which may have been better?

I would keep to 1600px wide at this stage.

TFS
Steve

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Dan ... well I really like the captured action of this deer species . Cool jump over the water and I like the overall landscape scenery .

To get a good result in terms of tones / colors ... you went bit overboard with the exposure , and nothing can save this . Very tricky to get this scenario in terms of backlight and the darkish parts , into one exposure .

Regardless of the technical shortcomings .... I like it .

TFS Andreas

 

[Bretoteanu Dan]

Happy new year everybody, thank you for your comments.
@Steve-I get and I like your suggestion about going dark. In your repost the deer is much brighter than the FG and BG, looks kinda unnatural. I will try and use either levels or curves. I played a bit with levels, moving the dark triangle from 0 to 25 gives a nice result to my eyes at least. With curves I used the hand on the patch of land just next to the puddle in the FG, moved the point by 10 and got a more contrasty look. I think I'll post both results, to see what the feedback will be. Dont think anithing can be done about that patch of grass right in front of the deer. While he was in shadow, coming from the LFS toward me the exposure was ok.
@John &Andreeas-I understand that in such situations its either one or the other, cant get both. Still, maybe a little less EC would have meant less clipping ( the white back of the deer).

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Dan, remember what you are using like Curves & Levels, or Contrast is just a form of Contrast adjustments where Blacks & White become more exaggerated, it might look cool, but it kills the finer detail and so more sharpening is applied creating images that are coarse, blocked and often crunchy in their appearance.

 

[Bretoteanu Dan]

• Canon EOS-1D X
• ƒ/5.6
• 400mm
• 1/1000s
• ISO 3200
• Flash not fired
• Sun, 01 November 2020 3:20 PM
• Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)

 

[Bretoteanu Dan]

Just reposted a new version. In CS 6 I alt-clicked on the black triangle in levels, moved it from 0 to 15. Selected the deer, used SS at 70%, 80% fade amount for shadows and 100%fade amount for highlights. Previously I uploaded a version with lvls till 20, but it looked rather weird,the shadow on the deer's neck was too contrasty, despite the fact that when I wieved it in DPP I liked what I saw. Feedback is welcome