Elk

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 5, 201374 views5 comments

This elk was munching grass next to our campsite at Mammoth in Yellowstone National Park in early April. I just noticed what must be a blurred-out man-made object above its left ear (perhaps a car or camper). Mostly the left side, and a bit of the right side, were cropped to make this a 1 x 1 aspect ratio.

Please make any suggestions on how to improve the colors, crop, composition, etc.

Pentax K110D with DA 55-300 at 230mm, 1/250sec, f/5.6, iso 200, RAW

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on November 6, 2013 at 9:01 AM

Hi Randy,

Looks like you had no problem getting close to this beast! When push comes to shove, I think the biggest detriment to executing this shot is the background. The reason for this is that I think your DoF here is too shallow - the nose is soft, and so are the ears (and there's a sharper region in-between). Obviously not ALL parts of an animal have to be sharp to make the image work, but when it comes to a portrait like this, sharpness on the bulk of the head is pretty desirable. But, if you stop down here to bring the full facial region into focus (to at least f8, and possible more) that background is going to get pretty distracting.

I have no clue of the surroundings outside of the frame or if you had any option of changing your position, but if it was possible to manoeuvre to a position that had a cleaner background, and then stop down, you'd likely have ended up with a stronger image. But, it could be that was impossible...

On the crop - that's totally personal preference. I'm not a huge fan of most square crops and I normally like portraits in a "portrait" aspect ratio (i.e., a vertical aspect ratio). And, on the positive side, if you cropped vertically (assuming you have more frame below) it looks like the fur on the neck is in focus!

Hope this makes sense...cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Williams on November 6, 2013 at 11:27 PM

It took me a while to see what Brad was saying about DOF. Love the portrait and the expression here. Up close and personal. Cool shot.

Registered on December 28, 2010, 636 Posts, 3499 Comments

Comment posted by Randy Runtsch on November 7, 2013 at 7:11 AM

Hi Brad and Ed: Thank you for the comments and suggestions. I'll look at the original, but believe this was taken in landscape (horizontal mode). To be fair, I think that my son and I were in the car at the time, and had just left the Mammoth campground in Yellowstone. So, it was really close up as I recall. The nose does look a little OOF now that I look closely, too.

You have provided some good technique suggestions for future wildlife photo opportunities.

Registered on October 30, 2013, 50 Posts, 445 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on November 7, 2013 at 10:27 AM

Yep, DOF definitely a trade-off here! Then again a too busy BG can be blurred a little, but an OOF nose cannot be made in focus in PP.

The square crop works for this head-on position IMO.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Randy Runtsch on November 7, 2013 at 6:50 PM

Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions and comments. I am not sure whether I will leave the picture as is, or try to blur out some of what looks like human-made objects in the background.

Registered on October 30, 2013, 50 Posts, 445 Comments