Elkscape at Dawn

[Rachel Hollander]

I thought I'd post another shot that is a little different than what we normally see here. Taken in Cataloochee Valley, N.C. in Smoky Mountains National Park at dawn in late October.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 70mm
1/800
f4/5
ISO 1600
EC +.67
HH while standing, cropped to pano, curves, levels, selective color adjustments, dodging and burning, Hougaard Malan action, and sharpened in CS5/CS6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel


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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I like the early morning look & feel with the image and the damp cold mist drifting by. Like the wispy curve of the mist on the LHS. The image portrays a nice environment/habitat. Personally I would loose about half the FG and try to extract a bit more depth from the image, just my take. Hopefully others will chip n with thoughts & views too. Just wonder, if supported by a tripod, you could have pushed the DOF as the Elk weren't really moving quickly?

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - yes, probably needed more dof and could have gotten it if I wasn't too lazy to take the tripod out of the car. Here's a repost hopefully incorporating your suggestions and also with an embedded color profile. I think I've got the save for web settings in CS6 sorted now.

Thanks as always,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, personally I think that is better, but it is just one persons thoughts. If you get stuck on the settings, shout, I fwd a screen grab. :w3

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
like the tranquility feeling of this misty morning.
The scattered elks are situated nice in the frame and the mist is adding nicely to the image.
I think well processed in OP, with a little tweak in the mid tones could be better,eventually .
Like the saturated look of the OP especially the red tones, but this maybe not going conform with a misty morning ?

But the crop in RP makes it for me composition wise , combined with the colors from OP and more mid tone contrast , yep ..........

TFS Andreas

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
tried something a bit over the top, but as steve is sometimes saying `to get the idea`.

WDYT ?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas, only things I did for repost was to dodge the shadows slightly, crop and embed the color profile. I can bring up the midtone contrast a bit more. Thanks for the suggestion and repost.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely mood in this one, Rachel, and I really like the layers you used.
Andreas' repost is my favourite, actually :t3 bar the halos that he picked up along the treetops :w3

[Steve Canuel]

Like the mood, the soft, dark reds in the trees, and the little glow of light coming through the trees in the upper right.