Momma never told him to wash his hands!

JustPlainMeJustPlainMe Registered Users Posts: 190 Major grins
edited May 22, 2009 in Wildlife
This isn't a portfolio kind of shot, but it made me happy. The prairie dogs at our local zoo have learned how to jump over their electric fence and they now leave their habitat, and then go back in when they want to. This one let me scratch him for a few minutes before he was on to better things. The original was landscape orientation, but the dog was centered, so I cropped tight on him to make it a little more interesting. This was shot at ISO 800 and there was a lot of noise, I did the most reduction I could without losing too much detail in the prairie dog. I might mess with it more this weekend.

3534120310_11ddd26d61.jpg
Please ignore my opinions! And if I ask for constructive criticism, please give it to me. I have really thick skin! :huh

Comments

  • dlplumerdlplumer Registered Users Posts: 8,081 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    Very cute. thumb.gif He let you scratch him wings.gif
  • Ric GrupeRic Grupe Registered Users Posts: 9,522 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    Yep...very cute. clap.gif

    Noise reduction can be done selectively. I rarely apply any NR to my main subject.
  • JustPlainMeJustPlainMe Registered Users Posts: 190 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    Ric Grupe wrote:
    Yep...very cute. clap.gif

    Noise reduction can be done selectively. I rarely apply any NR to my main subject.

    Ah, Ric, thanks for the tip---my raw converter doesn't do selective NR, or at least I don't know about it. I'll have to look into it. I never really "read the manual," I just started working with it.

    I assume something like Neat Image would allow selective NR? I never even thought about it. I had a decent shot of a mama cardinal yesterday, she was okay but everything around her was noisy. Applying NR in my raw converter software made her look very impressionistic, I didn't think I could save it. I threw it out.

    Learn something every day!

    Have a great weekend.
    Please ignore my opinions! And if I ask for constructive criticism, please give it to me. I have really thick skin! :huh
  • PupatorPupator Registered Users Posts: 2,322 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    I like the pic a lot - good job on the cropping and NR.

    It makes me happy too :Dthumb.gif
  • luisvluisv Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    Ah, Ric, thanks for the tip---my raw converter doesn't do selective NR, or at least I don't know about it. I'll have to look into it. I never really "read the manual," I just started working with it.

    I assume something like Neat Image would allow selective NR? I never even thought about it. I had a decent shot of a mama cardinal yesterday, she was okay but everything around her was noisy. Applying NR in my raw converter software made her look very impressionistic, I didn't think I could save it. I threw it out.

    Learn something every day!

    Have a great weekend.


    What I do is to import the image in photoshop and create a layer mask containing only the subject.
    Then I apply NR (noiseware) on the background layer and sharpen the subject layer.


    Nice picture, btw.
  • JustPlainMeJustPlainMe Registered Users Posts: 190 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    luisv wrote:
    What I do is to import the image in photoshop and create a layer mask containing only the subject.
    Then I apply NR (noiseware) on the background layer and sharpen the subject layer.


    Nice picture, btw.

    Thanks! I have Photoshop, but no third party NR software. I might need to look into it at some point.
    Please ignore my opinions! And if I ask for constructive criticism, please give it to me. I have really thick skin! :huh
  • luisvluisv Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited May 15, 2009
    Thanks! I have Photoshop, but no third party NR software. I might need to look into it at some point.

    I think you could just use Gaussian blur on the background (e.g. 2-4 pixels) instead of a 3rd party tool to remove the noise. Good luck!
  • jeffmeyersjeffmeyers Registered Users Posts: 1,535 Major grins
    edited May 22, 2009
    Awesome. I love it, especially the composition. Great work! thumb.gifthumb
    More Photography . . . Less Photoshop [. . . except when I do it]
    Jeff Meyers
Sign In or Register to comment.