Hopefully at least a 6.5 - I really like this shot.
Post challenge:
Its been a long week waiting for this challenge to end, but so glad its over now. FYI, when I woke up on the first day of voting my image was at 5.8 with 14 votes and gradually climbed up over the week, it hit a peak of around 6.9 at one point. Thanks everyone for the votes, I dunno if its just me, but I win ribbons with the lowest of scores. I admit I viewed the challenge history for the last 15 or so challenges to see if I could judge where it would come, I was figuring a top ten. I think the fact a lot of voters were voting down other great shots for not totally meeting the challenge helped me along - I didnt take the chance with not filling the frame as I know how fickle the voter can be.
Anyway, in post processing I did the following.
Desaturated slightly in Lightroom (LR)
upped the blacks and changed the overall hue a wee bit.
In PS I sharpened the base image, duplicated the layer, desat the new layer, set to overlay, gaussian blur the new layer and then drop the opacity slightly.
Cropped, add border, add slight vignette. I think I tonemapped slightly as well, cant be sure though.
Thanks everyone! As someone who isn't a proflic ribbon winner its still a massive thrill to see ones image on the frontpage.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 285 Avg (all users): 6.8896 Avg (commenters): 8.9500 Avg (participants): 6.8851 Avg (non-participants): 6.8947 Views since voting: 9195 Views during voting: 255 Votes: 163 Comments: 63 Favorites: 17 (view)
I was in fact about 7 foot away, but did use the 200mm end to get the detail up close. I made sure I had an escape route available, although I am built for comfort not for speed, therefore seeing this fatboy run whilst pursued by a ton of pissed off beef would of been amusing to any third parties.
Originally posted by adrian45:
I think this is very nicely focussed on the end of the horn - making a point of it, in fact? However, it contrasts nicely with the fuzzy coat that to my mind makes the beast a sort of cuddly-rug type creature.
So, it makes me aware that 'this cat got claws', as it were. I wouldn't like to be in the same field as this, so you got courage in my eyes - I bet you used the long end of the 200mm though - sensible!
I think this is very nicely focussed on the end of the horn - making a point of it, in fact? However, it contrasts nicely with the fuzzy coat that to my mind makes the beast a sort of cuddly-rug type creature.
So, it makes me aware that 'this cat got claws', as it were. I wouldn't like to be in the same field as this, so you got courage in my eyes - I bet you used the long end of the 200mm though - sensible!
You really like this shot? pffff...seems like EVERYONE really liked this shot. Forget the 6.5, 6.88 is a whole lot nicer, especially with that nice blue ribbon. Good work!!
the tones and colors really make this photo - the focus so completely on the animals face and the shallow DOF to blurr out the fur on the hind section work extremely well
Staring You Down
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