Early morning hare

I have been fighting this image for two days and I'd very much like to know if I have the colours right. I took it at dawn, just as the sun cleared the horizon, so the grass is mostly in shade, while the hare is brilliantly illuminated by hot sunlight. I had the white balance on a warm setting (6200) so while I had yellow grass, the red channel was clipped on the hare. When I correct the white balance, the grass goes blue-green, which is probably a fair representation but looks horrible to my eyes. I must have ten versions of this on my computer now and goodness only knows how many I have thrown away, but it is one of my better hare shots so far, hence the effort. It is a full frame shot, but I have slid it over a little to add some space on the right. Not sure if that was the right thing to do.

40D; Sig 500/4.5
f8; 1/125; iso 200
C&C very welcome

eric

Colour looks alright mate, can probably go a bit warmer. Well done for managing such a handsome specimen. Just got back, call you tonight.

Cheers,

Des

Eric

Looking at this on a calibrated monitor and it looks spot on to me. Wonderful light on the hare, nice and alert pose and sharp enough. I think the comp works well, just enough (IMHO) space on the RHS now and hare is looking into that space - spot on love it

cheers

Colin

Looks right to me here too Eric .You've done really well holding onto that leg fur which fools even the most highest exposure range in 14 bit .( I always blow mine ...LOL )
Great pose and comp .The grass BG is sloping I assume .It looks too as though it has a tadge of noise in it which is easily fixed .

great capture

Hi Eric, all mine at present are from the rear so well done. I think you can afford if possible to have a bit more on the rhs for the hare to look into, however, I do like the beady eye looking at you. Nice, soft light, but would agree it has a hint of yellow to me. Not sure if this is an improvement and might be running a fraction too warm perhaps? Am away, but tweaked in colour balance -10, +8, -9 & curves on the laptop. If it was early morning thought the grass could just cool down a fraction?

Nice one Eric, BTW if you disagree let me know and should be able to delete hopefully.

TFS
Steve

That's fine Steve, and it looks better to me, thanks for that.
eric

A lovely shot Eric. I have to say I cannot see anything wrong with colours on your original.

I think your original post looks spot on.A lovely detailed portrait.

Phil.

A fine, fine image - well worth all the effort you've put in


Simon

Nice shot, agree the original looks the shot regards colour.

original looks great to me too Eric, a very nice image. Lovely light and pose.

Mat

Hi Eric, now I am back, the OP looks good to me too. Viewing on laptops as I said, is not ideal.

Steve

Nice alert and unstressed-looking subject. Your original colours look fine to me. If you use the eye-dropper tool and Levels on the white underparts, you should be able to adjust the colour balance of the image as whole with some degree of assurance. You could go for a completely neutral colour balance where the red channel = green channel = blue channel, or a slightly warm version where the red channel has a slightly higher value than the blue channel. Very attractive image; well done.

The original looks fine to me too. Great portrait and beautiful light.

Its never easy to get the colures right with hares , either in the early morning or late evening , they can often look ginger like this shot . I have noticed that just before sunset they sometimes seem to light up, becoming far more visibly than earlier in the day. Nice picture though.

Bob.