Whitetail fawns

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Wade Abadie

Wade Abadie

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I have two photos for you guys, and would like your thoughts....

1. The first is a pair of twin Whitetail fawns. The front fawn (in focus) has some grass that is immediately in front of his face. At first glance, I find it to be a pleasing image, but the more I look at it up close the more the grass annoys me. What do you think? Does it take away from the photo in a meaningful way?

2. In the second photo, the fawn was walking away and took a moment to look back. I like the photo, but unfortunately there is another deer in the background immediately behind the fawn's head. I don't really have a specific question for this one....I just wish the other deer had not been in that position. To me it goes to show that a potentially very good photo can be downgraded to a mediocre one in a split second based on factors beyond your control.

These were both taken with a Nikon Z8 + Nikon 180-600mm

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The photos are nice and sharp. I'd try cloning out the grass in front of the fawn's face; it might not result in a worthwhile photo but I'd try. The second photo is what it is, an argument for shooting in bursts since the deer in the background might have been out of the way by the time your target fawn turned away.
 
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Woody Meristem said:
The photos are nice and sharp. I'd try cloning out the grass in front of the fawn's face; it might not result in a worthwhile photo but I'd try. The second photo is what it is, an argument for shooting in bursts since the deer in the background might have been out of the way by the time your target fawn turned away.
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I tried removing the grass with LR’s new generative removal tool, but it just didn’t look right.

Regarding the second photo….I always shoot bursts. The fawn only looked back for a few frames and the other deer was in the background in all of them unfortunately. This was the best one.
 
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Second would please me if I made it. Very nice image. The out of focus deer is no concern, a viewer will assume the child was curious and looked back as its parent was walking away,
 
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Not sure why you're worried about the OOF deer in the second image. The OOF deer in the first image is more distracting IMO because it is close enough to show a lot of detail which draws my eye. I much prefer the second image. I love animals looking back like that. We get to see both ends :) The OOF mother in the BG gives a bit of context without drawing attention away from the main subject. My only suggestions are to crop it down to 4x5 format and darken the bright area at extreme left. As much as I'd hate to do it the first one would be a cull for me.
 
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For the first photo if you want to remove the grass from face I would go into PhotoShop and lasso just outside the grass and then use generative ai remove. It’s much better than the generative remove in lightroom.

I really like the second photo and deer behind the subject is blurred so much it doesn’t bother me.
 
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I'm going to agree with much of what's been said here, especially regarding the second photo. I like it, the little one pausing to look back at you while mama keeps walking away. Mom is OOF enough she doesn't draw much attention, just enough to tell the story.

As far as the first photo - I'm torn if I'd keep it as is, or cull it like Dan would. In some ways, the grass doesn't completely distract me, almost tells the story that the little one thinks they're hidden behind that grass. As others have said, the too close OOF sibling is more distracting to me.
 
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Wade Abadie said:
I tried removing the grass with LR’s new generative removal tool, but it just didn’t look right.

Regarding the second photo….I always shoot bursts. The fawn only looked back for a few frames and the other deer was in the background in all of them unfortunately. This was the best one.
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I would try Photoshop's Remove tool. I think it works much better than the new tool in Lr.
 
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I re-visited the first photo in Lightroom and spent a little more time with the generative removal tool. Here is the result....I think it actually looks quite good. I used a smaller brush this time, and instead of trying to remove the grass all at once, I removed it in 4 parts (based on the consistency of the fur and face features behind it). I think it did a great job this go-round.

I do agree that the other fawn is still a major distraction for the overall image, but I'm just glad I was successful in removing the grass across the face for the next time it becomes an issue.

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Wade, these are very beautiful photos of the fawns! It is a matter of personal preference regarding the editing.

Your gallery is superb. Some people knock the Z 180-600mm, but your images are very impressive.

Best,
Mike
 
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NIKONF said:
Wade, these are very beautiful photos of the fawns! It is a matter of personal preference regarding the editing.

Your gallery is superb. Some people knock the Z 180-600mm, but your images are very impressive.

Best,
Mike
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Mike, thank you for the kind words. I have been very pleased with the 180-600. My only real complaint (which is minor) is that to squeeze the most sharpness possible out of it requires stopping down a little to f/7.1 or f/8. But I still use it wide open as well. The build quality, versatility, and IQ is a home run for the price point….especially considering that to get anything better at 600mm requires you to spend nearly 3x the price (for the 600 PF) or 9x the price (for the 600 TC).
 
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