Starting a new thread, Fine Art America


Jules Troy

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While I still post at Deviant Art I do kind of hate the name of the site.

I took Brant's suggestion and am starting this thread.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/into-darkness-a-long-eared-owl-jestephotography-ltd.html

Jonathan had suggested over a year ago that I incorporate fill flash into my wildlife photography.

I took it to heart and practiced a lot on different subjects at different distances and lighting conditions. With this owl I wanted to use barely enough light to get the shot and bounced it off a DIY card 1/128 sec flash, in camera -3 stops for the flash and -.3 EV for metering. For a very low key exposure.

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Hey Jules,

Have you test-ordered any of the options? I'm wondering if you like the metal prints. My guess would be that the blue heron image would be perfect for it (lots of color, lots of middle tones), but maybe not something as dark as the owl image? Or might I have that backwards?

Anyway, after I make up my mind on metal or not, I'm planning on ordering a copy of the owl. I love that one.

J

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Also Jonathan from my understanding one has to actually slightly desaturate images to be printed in metal because everything is so vivid. They account for this at the print shop, if I ever set up my own printing there is a whole big learning curve, output sharpening for different surfaces etc(one reason I let them handle it!)

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I will put him up for you DD!

Jonathan A metal print makes everything pop a little more, I think the owl would look great on metal!

http://jestephotography.deviantart.com/art/Arctic-Fox-Feed-me-I-am-cute-429951941

Is this the one you meant DD?

Yes that's it! Although I didn't remember it was a fox. Still my favorite.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Grr still can't find that elusive arctic fox, but in the meantime I captured this big horned ram running down the mountain towards me.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bighorned-ram-charge-jestephotography-ltd.html

In my opinion, this is one of your best photos. It's a keeper, for damn sure, whatever you do with your portfolio. I hope you sell a lot of prints on that one, because you deserve it. :)

I'm curious as to what kind of flash set up you're using. How to you get the adequate range when shooting wildlife? Do you use a very powerful flash and/or a snoot to focus the light beam?

I've tried some wildlife photography and... well, fuck me sideways but that's difficult! I mean, you can try and shoot some birds with a telephoto lense, but birds scare easily and bigger animals will either fly away or try to eat you alive. It's the most difficult kind of photography I can think of, and i've tried my hands on just about any kind of photography. I wish I could do what you're doing.

Keep up the good work, and I hope you sell a lot of prints! :)

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Thanks Thorn, that's pretty much my favourite capture as well!

Currently for flash I am using a Yongnuo 560 in manual mode. I actually prefer to bounce flash instead of beaming directly at the subject unless I am shooting a backlit subject then I use just enough for a tiny bit of fill. That long eared owl one for example was set at 1/128 with my flash pointed towards the sky but bounced off of a 6x6 inch DYI card I attached. Also in camera set the flash to -3 stops. I was going for a low key exposure. For birds in the bush during the day where light is subdued I don't use a better Beamer for more reach but actually use a diffuser. I use just enough fill to get a catch light and even out the exposure. I like to use flash so that it does not lookkkkkk like I used any at all. It's very easy to over flash which pretty much ruins detail and lowers contrast.

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Beautiful...I just thought how "cool" that would look on a Christmas ball with all the light playing off it...

We just put up our tree last night lol.

A...

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Sweeet!!! I am ordering a canvas of that one as well as a large framed print of that Ram barreling down the mountain so that I can reference different media.

I uploaded in Adobe RGB format and my monitor is calibrated as well so it should look very vibrant on metal. (I do wish they allowed photolab but Adobe RGB colorspace is pretty decent.).

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Yay! Merry Christmas to me!

Question: what is an acrylic print?

OMG. There's too many choices - type of print, type of frame, color of frame, all the matting options... I need someone to tell me what would look right for this little fox.

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Yay! Merry Christmas to me!

Question: what is an acrylic print?

OMG. There's too many choices - type of print, type of frame, color of frame, all the matting options... I need someone to tell me what would look right for this little fox.

A little Vixen with the right fixins would do...

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