Description:
I was out for my usual Sunday morning hike and came across this whitetail doe. I just sat in the grass watching it graze. It was somewhat curious and kept an eye on me but didn’t take off. I probably had about 5 minutes with the deer fairly close and near the end the sun peeked over the trees providing this backlight portrait. Taken this morning, a very timely image for this week’s challenge. I
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Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
No
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@bryannelsonca
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@bryannelsonca, Is this Serendipity, or what! How beautiful. I just love the soft glow all around. I especially like those little bright white lights…are those called “specular” highlights? Anyway, the whole seen is very dreamlike and soothing. Also, how nice that you got to sit there for a little while and just enjoy the scene with this sentient being!
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Bryan, the overall glow adds a great sense of gentle dreaminess and warmth to this portrait. I assume that the “glow” is from the light directly hitting your lens. It is mixed very well with the bokeh from the oof bits. You’ve got something here that I’ll have to watch for.
@Mark_Muller, those highlights are “bokeh”, bright out of focus highlights. Specular highlights are light reflected from a mirrorlike surface (e.g. water, wet leaves, etc.) and are usually so much brighter than the surroundings that there’s no way to keep them from blowing out.
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@Mark_Seaver , Yes the glow is from the sun hitting the lens. The original raw image was a underexposed and I increased the exposure and shadows to lighten up the image and used a warmer white balance. No post processing filters or negative clarity/dehaze applied. The sun was still quite low and hitting the front element of the lens not far out of the frame. Thanks for the weekly challenge as it reminded me to look for backlit images. It can add interest to wildlife and landscape images. I was sitting on the edge of a trail in a meadow with grass/plants still wet with dew in between myself and the deer providing some nice bokeh.
Beautiful a very dreamy like photo with soft light. Wonderful color palette .
well done on the editing
