Young Buck

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 5, 201445 views2 comments

I know I've broken a few rules here but I thought the basic image of this young buck wasn't too bad. So excuse the cut off legs and tightness to the left. This young guy (black-tailed deer) was with a mixed group of deer that I followed for a while the other morning. No activity going on to give a sense of the rut being at hand. His antlers are nice and polished, so he's ready although he might not get a chance to breed a doe this fall being a young buck. His coat change is almost done with just a few traces of the reddish summer coat mixed in with the gray of winter. This is a full frame photo so I'd be interested in how you might crop this. I considered a square portrait, but decided on this instead. I've added exposure to this as well as contrast and a little saturation and clarity while backing off a bit to open up the shadow areas as indicated by the histogram. Comments and critiques are welcome.

Tech Info

Canon EOS 60D with EF 70-200mm f/4 @ 200mm
1/320 at f/4 and ISO 1000
tripod
Lightroom 5

Comments

2 comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on October 6, 2014 at 9:29 AM

I would crop this to be a head and shoulders portrait. Also, would rotate cc to straighten the overall image a bit. Nice expression on this young buck. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on October 9, 2014 at 4:09 PM

If you want to do a portrait crop, I would first rotate CC, using the line of grasses behind as a guide. Then I would crop vertical, 4x5 ratio or so...top of shoulder to front leg, letting each ear point to respective top corners, and the nose pointing to lower right. Your processing feels about right.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments