[Bachs]

I took this one a couple of days ago, late afternoon.
f13, 1/250, ISO800 @210mm with UV and CPF filters on the EF75-300 mkIII USM

I just can't make my mind up wether I like it or not.
It's exactly as I saw it with minimum post processing apart from cropping and running through neatimage.

It looks like a stage set to me, I was considerably below the shot (I couldn't get any closer without them scarpering) and the light looks a little surreal.

Fire away!

[CT]

I can see what you mean - it has the appearance of one of those stuffed animal sets you see in natural history museums. All that apart though, it's an excellent shot. The only thing which spoils it for me is the sheep in the foreground is looking the wrong way - out of the frame rather than into it, not that you had any control over that obviously.

The ram on the rock is placed nicely on a third for good composition, and there's sufficient foreground interest and detail to lead your eye into the shot and up to the ram on the rock. In some ways, it's a shame the foreground sheep is there at all - you sort of follow her gaze which leads your eye out of the picture. Without her your eye would flow naturally up to that ram on the rock and he's striking a beautiful pose as well as being the focal point. Still - them's the breaks.

Cracking shot though, well done! :icon_cool

[Bachs]

Thanks for that...you hit the nail on the head! It looks like stuffed animals on a stage set

They were away pretty quickly so I didn't get the chance to wait for the perfect composition.
I'ts also severely deteriorated after shrinking down to post, the original is a lot sharper DOH!

Its in my gallery with a handful of others under 'wildlife' (and in 'latest additions').

I posted the intermediate size. Clicking on that in the gallery brings up the larger image which looks better....you can almost make out the stitching

[CT]

LOL

I don't now if you're aware, so forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know, but most people would agree that sharpening should be the absolutely last thing that you do to an image after you've adjusted all the other parameters to how you want them in other words - you're sharpening an otherwise finished image so you should be able to sharpen optimally and you aren't going to make any alterations afterwards which might make different sharpening parameters desirable. (Hope that makes sense)

If you're going to reduce a picture to web size or the size we show pics here then you shouldn't have sharpened the image before you reduce it. Reduce the size THEN finally sharpen. All images lose a little definition anyway when you reduce them in size and benefit from a sharpen, but you don't want to be sharpening over a previous sharpen complicated by a later reduction which has degraded that sharpening process.

I'll check your gallery out just now, but judging by this shot I don't think you're going to have much trouble progressing pretty rapidly.

[Bachs]

Thanks again, and I am guilty as charged regarding sharpening.
I always sharpened at the very last moment and have always done all my post processing in tiff format then finally resize and convert to jpeg.

Since I got the 350D I delved head first into RAW and edit using Rawshooter Essentials before cropping and minor re-tweaking in Photoshop.
I have got into a bad habit of using the sharpening tool in RSE then using Unsharp Mask after resizing in PS.
This is obviously creating unnatural looking results so another lesson learned and many more to come no doubt!

[CT]

That's the problem with digital photography you take the plunge into unkown territory only to find you have to make another quantum leap straight away into post processing - PS et al and RSE etc, to really get good results. We're all still learning the post processing bit though, and probably always will be. :icon_eek:

[Matty]

i like this shot, but i really want it to be the otherway, so the treed rock and goat things are on the Left and the space is on the right, that would work for me

[seberri]

best way is to go in LAB mode color and to sharpen on L after resizing
I sharpen only to export in JPG and never save a TIF after sharpening

[Bachs]

Originally Posted by seberri

best way is to go in LAB mode color and to sharpen on L after resizing
I sharpen only to export in JPG and never save a TIF after sharpening

I've seen the tutorial on that method on the front page.
I'm going to give it a try over the weekend!