Red Fox at BWC (c)

I've been a member, but I've hardly attended, but I've renewed my membership, so I hope to stick around a little longer this time

I've found some more time to take some new pictures particularly with a newly acquired Nikon D700 using a 70-200mm f/2.8.

Here's a red fox from the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey (i.e captive)

- Nikon D700 and 70-200mm f/2.8
- f/3.2 - 1/400 - ISO 220

a striking portrait and I like the light on the eyes, but I'd reduce the saturation on the background as it's a bit overpowering in my opinion.

Matt

A very striking pose, but I think a portrait format would have suited it better. I agree with Matt about the saturation of the background.

David

Agree about reducing the saturation... I am picking up a cyanish cast in the 'white' ....

I actually like the landscape presentation.

Striking portrait but I think the missing legs bother me too much so I'd prefer a vertical portrait view I think. Nice use of a shallow depth of field.

Very nice shot David the focus on the eyes is great and the landscape format is ok

I do think you ought to tone down the greens and there is a blue tinge to the whites

really like the composition here and the background is great, agree the colours need toning down though

Many thanks for the critiques

Yes, I was aware that the greens were rather bright

It's pretty much as it came out of the camera if I'd used the Nikon Vivid setting. I processed it in Lightroom using the Camera Vivid Calibration preset. I took the picture at about a quarter to eight at the end of June after a bright day, so the light then was conducive to good pictures.

Anyway I admit that I do agree with all the comments about the green now, so I've desaturated that a little. I did not notice the blue tinge initially, so I've taken that away now too.

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There's a magazine on sale right now which also has a picture of a fox on it's cover (Digital Camera magazine). The greens of that picture are nearly like the ones of my picture here. Also, almost all of those I show my pictures to react to and appreciate the ones with brighter colours. And the most successful pictures on Flickr are often those with bright colours.

So while I agree with all of the comments above - and I still prefer a picture to be reasonably accurate, it does seem that a lot of people (non-photographers maybe) will still plump for overly bright images.

So what if you want to make a sale? What's the best thing to do? I'm curious to know what others may think.

Very nice image. The sharp head looks good against the oof body & bg. It does look better with the bg less bright

Lee

Very nice image. The sharp head looks good against the oof body & bg. It does look better with the bg less bright

Lee

One comment than about the saturation - green is the most problematic colour. In competitions you often see images criticised for over saturated greens even when the green has been recorded absolutely faithfully. It seems that most people expect green to be a passive background colour. But you only have to take a walk in early morning or late afternoon light to realise that in real life, greens are very vibrant. So I tend to desaturate them a little even though I'm confident that they would be pretty true to life if I left them alone.

Mesmersing, full of intrigue what a great shot.

Tim

The repost is much better David, gorgeous face

Andy...

Thank you everyone for your replies. I did tone the green down a little, and I found what Duncan Armour had to say about greens most interesting. I remember on that day thinking how bright the greens looked thru the viewfinder. But I toned them down anyway. That was good advice and I've done so.

I would have loved to have captured him in a portrait frame, so maybe next time that's what I'll try more to do