Deer in Winter - a scene

[netadmin22]

This is one of my first attempts with my new 75-300 IS zoom. With light being somewhat poor, it took many attempts to get this photo. What do you think?

[http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/1318200303IMG_0475-med.JPG]

[martcol]

I really enjoyed this shot. Mostly I like everything about the snow. The texture, exposure the detail and so on. The deer doesn't make a really striking subject for me because of the competing interest in the whole scene. I think it's great that you got the beast looking straight at you so that does bring it into the shot much more.

I thought that it might improve by bringing up the brightness of the deer so hope you don't mind but had a go. This was just a slight curves adjustment on the deer only which would have been more successful on the full size image. Anyway, hope you don't mind the suggestion - lovely image.

Original

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=2062898&outx=600&oq=0

Brighter deer

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=2062899&outx=600&oq=0

Martin

[netadmin22]

Thank you for the reply. Lightening the deer certainly was an improvement.

Now, I have two questions...

1. How did you apply the "curves" to the deer only?

2. How does one get a photo to be included with a message rather than a link to the photo?

Thanks.

[karusel]

About the curves.. I'd use a lasso tool to select the deer, feather the selection a pixel or two.

There is a Help link up above that tells you all about putting a picture in a post and other stuff as well.. :)

And the picture... it is nice, but I find the deer in the precise center quite disturbing.

[martcol]

netadmin22 wrote:
Thank you for the reply. Lightening the deer certainly was an improvement.

1. How did you apply the "curves" to the deer only?



The real trick in any selective edit is Lasyer Masks in PS. Search on the net for this stuff. Anyway, the curves adjustment is easy but use an "ADjustment Layer" (that's the half-shaded circle at the bottom of the layers pallette). The beauty of the Adjustment Layer is any changes you make are never final and you can adjust to your hearts content!

The next thing is the layer mask. Click on the plain white icon in the layer bar in the layer pallette. This is a greyscale mask. Using paint tools (Brush, fill, grad fill) you just paint your mask on. That is the briefest of explanations but it is really simple. Like most things in PS there is heaps of power and detail in this stuff so, off you go! Oh, and you can achieve a similar effect to a feather by applying a gausian blur to the mask. This means you don't get hard edges (although you might get halos) to your selection/edit.

email if you need more...

Good Luck

Martin

[Scottes]

Nice shot. How close were you, out of curiousity?

The image looks like it could use a bit of shadow recovery, which isn't surprising with that stop range. As martcol said, the picture's a little noisy with the trees and rocks and such. Still, a great picture - I'd be damned happy to take one like this.

[netadmin22]

scottes wrote:
Nice shot. How close were you, out of curiousity?

The image looks like it could use a bit of shadow recovery, which isn't surprising with that stop range. As martcol said, the picture's a little noisy with the trees and rocks and such. Still, a great picture - I'd be damned happy to take one like this.



How far was I? This was about a month ago and I took a lot of pictures but I do recall the location and the rocks, etc. However, the mind plays tricks. My first impression is that is was pretty far because most of my shots were closer (about 10 - 15 yards). This was at least 25 yards and perhaps 30.

[Leighow]

Look it is a beautiful shot.
********************

In fact, if this is in the "wild" it is the best shot of a deer that I have seen posted. Just try to get these animals. You have about 3 seconds!I decided to try an alternative composaition so I cropped as below.

Wish that I could get a deer shot like that with the G2. It is possible, I just have never been "ready" when we encounter them (and that is every week!). The 130 mm zoom would do fine (I used to flush them on my bike!).

But yesterday there was one eating snowy grass in the mist. I would have had to creep across a field with a 400 mm lens !

HOWIE

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/DEER.jpg

[netadmin22]

Leighow wrote:
Look it is a beautiful shot.
********************

In fact, if this is in the "wild" it is the best shot of a deer that I have seen posted. Just try to get these animals. You have about 3 seconds!I decided to try an alternative composaition so I cropped as below.

Wish that I could get a deer shot like that with the G2. It is possible, I just have never been "ready" when we encounter them (and that is every week!). The 130 mm zoom would do fine (I used to flush them on my bike!).

But yesterday there was one eating snowy grass in the mist. I would have had to creep across a field with a 400 mm lens !

HOWIE

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/DEER.jpg



Thank you for your comments. In fact, this deer was in the wild and what I liked most about the photo was the ruggedness of the surroundings. Next time, time permitting, I will concentrate more on the composition.