Ally Green
September 2023 - Early Morning Snack
About the Image(s)
We have a lot Chipmunks in our backyard so always fun to capture them. Enjoying my coffee on our deck early morning I spotted this young one feeding off a plant. The light was just right.
Taken with my Canon 5D Mark IV 100-400 mm lens. 1/500 F6.3 ISO640. In post I just masked the subject in LR and added Texture, Contrast and moved the shadows & highlights. I also put it through the LR Denoise and sharpened a bit.
7 comments posted
Very cute, and with a flower no less. My suggestion would be to add a bit of exposure to the chipmunks head and darken the grass on the left to somewhat match that in the upper right. Maybe add a blur to the grass as well to help separate the chipmunk from the surroundings. Posted: 09/03/2023 10:19:44
Thanks Mike and yes i agree about the different shades of grass so will look at darkening it on the left. Also the blur would be good to make the Chippy stand out. Posted: 09/10/2023 11:25:28
Haven't seen chipmunks for so long, so I was drawn to this nice photo. My only suggestion would be to darken the grass in front of the animal it tends to draw the eye first instead of the subject. A great shot.
Posted: 09/13/2023 08:55:27
Posted: 09/13/2023 08:55:27
Ally, I love this image. You captured both the charm of this chipmunk and the joy of the backyard safari. The green grass makes a perfect background for the grey/brown of the subject. I agree with Mike and Ann that the bright foreground is somewhat distracting, and offer an alternate approach to addressing it: crop the bottom to where the chipmunk's body begins. Posted: 09/17/2023 11:21:55
To me this is a very fun image. The catch light in the eye makes the chipmunk look very much alive, and your shutter speed created an image that is tack sharp. I only have one suggestion for improvement: since green is the easiest color for the human eye to detect it can draw the viewer's attention away from the subjest. To deal with this I would decrease the green saturation and luminosity. Posted: 09/17/2023 13:07:37
Thanks Sharon. Interesting to know how powerful green is so will look at decreasing the saturation and luminosity. Posted: 09/18/2023 12:16:37
You did a great job with your composition in that there are no grass blades going through the chipmunks face. Nice and sharp and great catch light in the eye. I agree with the others suggestions as well as decreasing the saturation on the grass. Also, maybe masking the chipmunk and bringing up the exposure very slightly. He posed nicely for you and having his breakfast added to the charm of this little guy. Posted: 09/17/2023 19:52:12