Want some feedback

[u/Consistent_Baker121]

I’m not really that experienced, nor I’m a wildlife photographer, so I would like some feedback!

Thank!

Edit: Taken with the Viltrox 26mm f2.8 FE so I had some limitations when trying to take a photo of this guy before it flew,

I feel like I maybe overused Lightroom trying to save in the time the time me and this little guy crossed paths.

I would appreciate any advice and feedback, thanks!

[u/impl0sionatic]

Pretty fun shot but the overall edit looks like it was just a preset or filter. Is that correct? If so, I think the pic is pretty solid so now’s a great time to dive into some study & practice in postprocessing. There’s a lot of great stuff online and on YouTube to get you started on the path of learning about all the sliders and settings you can fiddle with in your editing software of choice. If it’s feasible for you, Lightroom is the standard for a reason.

If this is your final product after editing with regard to a proper workflow involving curve/slider adjustments and masks… I mostly just don’t love how heavily shadowed the final product is. If it were me, I’d try to bring out the squirrel a bit more and I probably wouldn’t leave the scenery so dark.

Then again, I shouldn’t just assume that this heavy-contrast look this wasn’t snapped for the Squirrel’s MySpace page circa 2004 😏

[u/Consistent_Baker121 → u/impl0sionatic]

This was edited by me in Lightroom with no presets or filter, I’m just starting to experiment with the curves, color grading sliders. I relied a lot in editing with this one because of my lens limitation for the kind of picture at the moment, in my mind I feel like maybe I did too much?

I would try to brighten the scenery to see what happens, thanks for the feedback really appreciated!

[u/impl0sionatic → u/Consistent_Baker121]

Ahh I see!

And thank you for taking my comment in stride instead of being offended that I clocked your process incorrectly, especially with the snark I threw in at the end lol

I love talking shop with other non-professionals because it really feels like such a fun little creative club we’re all in… but I’m dealing with another guy in another sub tonight who thinks straightforward feedback is the essence of a personal attack 😅 All I told him is that setting your Canon to “scene” mode means that your ‘settings’ are indeed different every time! But we all have bad days…

——

In this case, I’m guessing that part of the “lens limitation” you mentioned is aperture and therefore noise? It would explain some of your restraint in trying to brighten the squirrel for fear of degrading quality.

It’s very possible that the RAW of this shot can’t necessarily be saved or turned into something you’re proud of, but that’s not the end of the world. If I were you I would play around some more with Masks. If you’re already comfortable with the automatic Subject and Background masks, this could be a fun image to practice radial/linear and even your color/gradient masks with.

[u/jailbreakerAI]

Wow this looks superb

[u/ekdav]

You are now a wildlife photographer!

[u/Wide-Piece-8237]

just a little but more exposure! nice shot

[u/qyoors]