Taken as RAW, created three exposure from a single RAW file, merged them with brightness/contrast/sharpness/hue/saturation controls and some local dodge/burn, local color control, resized, cropped, and saved for web.
Its news like this that tears my heart away:
//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15029424/
Lets save their world!
[Oct. 21st, 2008 02:42:16 PM]
During challenge: This is my first entry to any wildlife challenge. I really didnt expect it to do too good (and it isnt;-). But inspired by [user]Yanko[/user] post in the scores thread, I am disclosing that it is was shot in a zoo (the SanFrancisco Zoo). In fact one of the commenter's recognised that it is so.
Also, just to clarify, if a wildlife challenge happens again in future, with the same description, I will run to the zoo again.. unless the description clearly states 'no zoo pictures allowed'.
And I just got fav'd once:-)
Thanks to all the voters and commenters.
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Place: 133 out of 159 Avg (all users): 5.0104 Avg (commenters): 5.0000 Avg (participants): 4.6957 Avg (non-participants): 5.1870 Views since voting: 763 Views during voting: 346 Votes: 192 Comments: 7 Favorites: 1 (view)
Also, just to clarify, if a wildlife challenge happens again in future, with the same description, I will run to the zoo again.. unless the description clearly states 'no zoo pictures allowed'.
Good on ya, me too! Not that mine was at a zoo, just that I have absolutely no problem with it and would do it myself next time.
As for the photo, I think Jessi pretty much sums up all the technical/editing issues I had with it also. Those "smudgy" bits she refers to look like spot blurring to me. Not sure what monitor you're using and you may not be seeing it so obviously, but it might pay to look at your image on other screens just to be sure, before uploading :)
Thanks!
The spot blurring sources itself to the tiger's huge tongue on the glass that separated it from us camera junkies. For some reason, he got annoyed with me setting the shot up and taking too long.. so as I was about to click, he smeared the glass with his saliva;-)
About the crop and over sharpening, I agree.. I should have done better with those.
Also, just to clarify, if a wildlife challenge happens again in future, with the same description, I will run to the zoo again.. unless the description clearly states 'no zoo pictures allowed'.
Good on ya, me too! Not that mine was at a zoo, just that I have absolutely no problem with it and would do it myself next time.
As for the photo, I think Jessi pretty much sums up all the technical/editing issues I had with it also. Those "smudgy" bits she refers to look like spot blurring to me. Not sure what monitor you're using and you may not be seeing it so obviously, but it might pay to look at your image on other screens just to be sure, before uploading :)
I do feel that this might have been stronger if it hadn't been framed quite so tightly; in particular, I find the cut off ears rather awkward. There are a number of 'spots' where the detail appears missing, which I do find somwaht distracting.
I had actually noticed this one when flipping through entries before, it kinda stood out. Now that I see the full size, it's great in focus but I think you might've gone a little bit overboard in the sharpening. Composition is excellent, his eye is on (or close to) a rule-of-thirds line.
Lighting could use work -- I realize you probably didn't have too much control over conditions, but parts of this are horribly overexposed. You're losing detail in his muzzle, the fur on his front leg, in various spots on the background bokeh, and the entire top third of the background. Try underexposing by a couple spots. Animals with darker coats are usually harder to meter from (I have a black dog, I should know!!) so I would have metered off the ground right in front of his nose and then taken the shot. Remember, it's advanced editing, so you can dodge the parts that need to be lighter back in, like the eye. (Alternatively, you could possibly have done a shadow/highlights adjustment on just those parts that were too light...but probably only if you originally had shot in RAW.)
What's with the weird smudgey bits? They're kind of distracting.
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