Pamela Hoaglund
November 2024 - Mule Deer Doe
Original
About the Image(s)
While hiking a trail east of the Cascade Mountains we were greeted by this big mule deer doe eating on the hillside above the trail. She just watched us even though my dog was with us. She seemed very unconcerned. Shot with my Sony RV with a Sony 24-105mm lens at 105mm. ISO 1250, at 1/125sec, and f/4.5. Handheld. Sometimes I get too rushed and don't pay enough attention to the camera settings. The forest was rather dense and dark. Post processed with ON1 RAW 2024. I used both noNoise in ON1 and DeNoise in Topaz to try to decrease the noise. Added some dynamic contrast and sharpening. Cropped to a square format. I'll be interested in your thoughts.
10 comments posted
I like this forest scene. You did a good job lightening and denoising the image. Because it seems a bit soft I might go with a watercolor filter to emphasize the artistic/impressionistic quality of the image. Posted: 11/02/2024 16:07:37
Thanks Judith Posted: 11/17/2024 20:57:18
I like it. Nice pose for the deer with all four legs showing and eye contact. I agree you did a wonderful job bringing up the exposure and dealing with the noise, which is not noticable to me at all. If this were mine, I'd take out the broken log in front of the deer, which attracts too much of my eye's attention. I might also crop just a bit of the left side to remove some of the brightness back there, and I wouldn't lighten it up as much - maybe. I'd have to do it and compare. Nice job. Posted: 11/02/2024 18:57:44
Photographing a subject in a dense forest is a challenge and editing for me is more of a challenge in trying to figure out what to do. I appreciate your suggestions. Posted: 11/17/2024 20:58:54
That is a nice pose of the mule deer with its hind back leg out and looking straight at you. I like the vegetation surrounding the deer…the fern with the leaves intermingled and the trees behind. Very nice setting. Crop is just right too. Posted: 11/03/2024 22:23:43
Thanks Ally Posted: 11/17/2024 20:59:16
I think your crop works well and using the two DeNoise programs has taken care of that effectively. I am thinking that if it was my image my next step might have been to select the subject and increase the exposure on it before working on the background. Also while the deer is selected I might want to tweak the WB to warm it up a bit. Try it and see what you think. Posted: 11/09/2024 20:47:29
Thanks Sharon. Sometimes I'm not sure what direction to take in my edits. I did mask the deer and added dynamic contrast and sharpening. I didn't think about adjusting the WB on her. Good suggestions. Posted: 11/17/2024 21:02:29
I enjoy the 'feel' of this image, it feels damp and shady. I like the musculature and ribcage details in the deer as well. For my taste, you have the exposure just right on the deer and the background. The only suggestion I have is to remove the thin black stem that runs just behind her ear and up the tree trunk. Posted: 11/10/2024 00:40:48
Thanks Polly. I did notice the branch and thought about working on it. Sometimes trying the detail removals leads me into more trouble and distortion. Posted: 11/17/2024 21:04:38