What can i do to this image?

insidewildlife

insidewildlife

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Name
Alex
Edit My Images
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I took these images over a year ago, at the time i was pretty pleased with them. However i do feel i haven't post processed them as well as perhaps i could have. I use lightroom 4 for processing images, has anyone got any suggestions as to what i could do to this image?


Havent quite figured out this linking images business yet, please see hyperlink to flickr below...
cC9nxW

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexeameswildlife/7628951696/

If anyone would like to have a go with the raw file, be my guest.
http://www.filedropper.com/img4980
 
Both of the boxing hare pics look to me as if they are correctly focussed just in front of the animals; look at the blades of grass between them, which are perfectly sharp, while the hares are just not quite.

If that is the case, and I await others views on this, there's not a lot you can do other than beef up the sharpness a bit to see if that helps. Or otherwise it could be subject movement........
 
Great capture, you shouldnt knock yourself too much on it, the PP is great on there. I had a go myself and could not improve it, in fact my attempt didn't look as good as yours :)

first thing i noticed with the raw, was it was underexposed., but only by 1 stop
I also noticed the image was quite noisy, ISO500, shot at 1/4000 th ? Did it need to be that fast? ISO could have been at 250 and shot at 2,000th. I guess the noise will make it look not as sharp as it would have at a lower ISO. 500 is pretty high.

If you can freeze frame a real (people) boxing match at 1,000th, the bunnies will be quicker (I would guess) but 2,000 should still freeze them sufficiently - should, but as i've said, not seen hares do that, so cant comment, just guessing based on similar fast motion captures.

I think its a cracking photo, very nice work :)
 
Thanks very much for the responses, i've spent hours fiddling and that image is the best ive come up with. I feel a little bit happier with my image now having read those responses, there is only so much you can do PP i guess!

With regards to the camera settings, it was a shambles if im honest.... i wasn't actually expecting that shot, i was still getting into position when it happened so i popped up quickly and just fired as i didn't have time to adjust... i have a feeling i knocked the settings as i don't think i used a shutter speed anywhere near that high on the day.

I agree with you Jerry, the focus is slightly our on most of the images in the set, its not horrendous but it is definitely on the grass at their feet as you quite rightly say.
 
Just to help with the "getting image to show" thing.

On flickr, click share, then click the BBcode, choose size, copy and paste the entire code into your post.

(sorry if you knew this all ready )
 
scott199 said:
Just to help with the "getting image to show" thing.

On flickr, click share, then click the BBcode, choose size, copy and paste the entire code into your post.

(sorry if you knew this all ready )
Click to expand...

Hi Scott, thanks for this... i've just utilised that info in my latest thread :)
 
I'm not sure what you think further post processing will gain. It's a well timed, wildlife image. You shouldn't really be over processing wildlife images anyway, as an image like this has it's appeal in the fact that it's documentary in nature, not creative. I think it's a beautifully timed image. The lighting could have been better, but that's beyond your control. If you want to improve this image, then go and take another boxing hare image in better light.

The answer does not lie in post processing.
 
The Sigma 150-500 is known to be soft when wide open ( I have one too). I think shooting at f8 would not only sharpen up the image but give you slightly more dof to play with. (admittedly only about 2 ins. if the hares were 50 ft away but every little helps.)
 
I had a very quick go using LR & Nik to try to emphasise the apparent sharpness of the hares, partly by reducing the sharpness and clarity of the grass (except for the bit directly in the plane of the hares) and partly by trying to boost the sharpening on the hares themselves.

I also selectively reduced the temperature and saturation a smidge.
I also cropped on a 1x1.619 ratio with the triangle overlay, lining up the eye of the right hair on an intersection.

I think your results were better though I like my crop.. I'm only sharing mine for interest's sake, not 'cos I think it has any great worth:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9c4eqn6k1fer4fz/IMG_4980-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit.jpg
 
juggler said:
I had a very quick go using LR & Nik to try to emphasise the apparent sharpness of the hares, partly by reducing the sharpness and clarity of the grass (except for the bit directly in the plane of the hares) and partly by trying to boost the sharpening on the hares themselves.

I also selectively reduced the temperature and saturation a smidge.
I also cropped on a 1x1.619 ratio with the triangle overlay, lining up the eye of the right hair on an intersection.

I think your results were better though I like my crop.. I'm only sharing mine for interest's sake, not 'cos I think it has any great worth:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9c4eqn6k1fer4fz/IMG_4980-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit.jpg
Click to expand...

I like that version actually, although my LR skills are fairly limited... Which area/tool did you use to reduce the focus on the grass...

I'd like to experiment with this technique a bit as i can see it being useful on a number of my images! So much to learn!

Thanks for your input, much appreciated!
 
I reduced the sharpness of the grass by using an LR adjustment brush with reduced sharpness and clarity at fairly low flow and high feather. I also used a little of the tonal contrast filter in color efex pro 2 on negative settings. You could also do this using one of the blur filters in PS together with a mask

I increased the sharpness of the hares using Nik Output Sharpener's focus tool, but the LR adjustment brush would give similar results. I also increased the clarity on the hares and applied a subtle luminosity tone curve to them - using CEP2 - and increased with the contrast of the red channel with a similar curve. Again, you could easily do similar in PS.
 
juggler said:
I reduced the sharpness of the grass by using an LR adjustment brush with reduced sharpness and clarity at fairly low flow and high feather. I also used a little of the tonal contrast filter in color efex pro 2 on negative settings. You could also do this using one of the blur filters in PS together with a mask

I increased the sharpness of the hares using Nik Output Sharpener's focus tool, but the LR adjustment brush would give similar results. I also increased the clarity on the hares and applied a subtle luminosity tone curve to them - using CEP2 - and increased with the contrast of the red channel with a similar curve. Again, you could easily do similar in PS.
Click to expand...

Really useful stuff, i'm going to have a play over the weekend to see if i can figure these features of LR out. I'd imagine there are a lot of useful features i have never discovered! Many thanks for your help!
 
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