The Story Behind the Photo: Squirrel Up Close
The Photo Story
Someone is feeding the Squirrels at Sheldon Marsh Nature Preserve in Northwest Ohio. Walking along the approximately 1 mile long trail to Lake Erie, at least 7 squirrels approached me on the path for a hand out. I felt bad not having anything to give them as they were expecting something.
Squirrel Up Close
I was carrying my 500mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter so I could not take photos of them when they were really close. I did capture a photo of this squirrel in the woods along the trail.
I think the shallow depth of field really helps his face to pop in the photo. The young foliage in the front also adds to the photo. I had to raise the ISO to 800 to get a high enough shutter speed to account for movement.
Squirrel Photo Details
Camera: Canon 5d Mark iii
Lens: Canon 500mm f/4 with 1.4x teleconverter
Focal Length: 700mm
ISO: 800
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500 second
Exposure Compensation: +1/3
Lighting: Heavy Clouds
Squirrel Photo Post Processing
- Cropped the photograph in Lightroom 5
- Used Google Viveza 2 to selectively lighten and darken portions the photo.
- Added Detail, Saturation, and contrast to the image using the Detail Extractor Filter in Color Efex Pro 4.
- Used Topaz DeNoise and a Layer Mask in Photoshop CC to selectively remove the noise from the photo.
- Selectively sharpened the image using the Unsharp filter and a layer mask in Photoshop CC
Written by Martin Belan
Related Posts
Nature Photography at Sandy Ridge Reservation
Try Cuyahoga Valley National Park for Photographing the Spring Bird Migration
The Story Behind the Photo: Singing Song Sparrow