Oh Deer

[srjones]

I hate to blow my own HORN, but this is pretty good. What do you people think?
http://gallery.photographyreview.com...&ppuser=254435

[srjones]

I noticed the sky was bad and fixed it. http://gallery.photographyreview.com...&ppuser=254435

[MarcusK]

Well, i like what you said an how it compares to the photo "horn"...get it...

But i'll be honest, although i would consider this quite the effort, since deer would most probably run off... being able to capture one is interesting enough.... As for the photo, i personally think it is a totally different matter...

1- Too centered
2- Colors could use a little tweaking, the green doesn't feel "fresh" enough...
3- The crop bothers me, since the little bit of sky shown "feels" like a mistake... more sky or no sky would have been better
4- I am unsure whether it was possibl for you or not, but a shot with the deer's head up would have also been more expressive
5- When it comes to wildlife photography, and due to the fact that you need to be quite a distance away from the animals so as not to scare them off, a long lens is usually used... as such, depth-of-field helps focus the attention on the animal.....most of the times anyway...

These are all things i believe are related to wildlife photography... although something tells me you were strolling or jogging or simply driving by, and grabbed the photo as fast as possible so as not to miss out on an interesting opportunity!

But then again, that's just me and my humble little opinion!
Marc

[GB1]

It's OK, but the landscape isn't really that exciting. But you did good to capture the shot.

I'd blow the horn. I had a photo instructor that used to sit up in trees for the greater part of a day at a time waiting for deer to walk by. Just before he snapped the shot he said he whistled, getting the deer to look up in a tall, powerful way. The shots came out great. I guess once you get it, you dont care too much if the deer runs away.

-GB

[gahspidy]

Welcome to the forum. I agree with much of the points Marc brought out already. I too feel it is cropped too tightly, and the subject is too centered. I notice what appears to be a cyan/greenish color cast over the picture and a white point adjustment or just levels adj should help clear out the tone of the image. The subject blends in too much into the background and having the deers head up would help bring it out more as well as a better lighting situation. I don't suspect you set out planning on capturing this shot and moreso randomly came upon it, in which case you did well in getting it in the first place.

[Greg McCary]

One of the first things learned on these forums when capturing wildlife are the eyes of your subject. Always try and include them in your pictures...
Greg

[trog100]

its a great capture.. a little trick is to get the subject all lined up and at the last second make a small noise say moo or baa (can u tell we do this with cows and sheep) as it lifts its head to look at the noise u get your shot..

if the noise isnt too startling most things look up for a second before running off..

trog

ps.. or better still a burst of shots.. be a machine gunner.. and let your shutter make the "look up" noise.. u will get some remarkable shots this way.. never take just the one picture..

[srjones]

I was to far away to get the deer to here me. But thats a good idea to take a burst of shots. I thinlk the deer did look up as I was leaving. That would have been great. Thanks

[livin4lax09]

I noticed the sky was bad and fixed it. http://gallery.photographyreview.com...&ppuser=254435

please respect forum rules and do not edit and repost without the original photographer's permission.

[Greg McCary]

But I think he only edited his own post...
Greg

[mjs1973]

please respect forum rules and do not edit and repost without the original photographer's permission.

Brent, this is the original poster, fixing their own photo,and reposting it.

I would echo everything that everyone else said. I have spent many hours looking for deer to photograph. Take a look and in the Nature & Wildlife forum or my gallery and you can see some of the shots that I got.

As far as fixing the sky, I took a look at the large image in your gallery, and the fixed sky looks very faked. There are even some spots in the sky that you missed. You can try feathering they sky, or blending it so it meshes with the fore ground better. I do think it looks better with the blue sky, but it needs to look more natural where it meets the fore ground.

[livin4lax09]

hahahaha mannnn, I knew I should have gone to sleep earlier than I did last night...