Morning, Any Coffee Left?

[Rachel Hollander]

This elephant decided to come over and say good morning. It was so close that I had to crop and clone to remove our tracker's shoulder from the photo. Taken on an overcast August morning in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 80mm
1/320
f7.1
ISO 800
EC +.67
HH from safari vehicle, cropped, cloned, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, NR and sharpened in CS5/6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel


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[Tom Graham]

I really like the POV, perspective, up and out trunk, and spread ears.
Something about the contrast or color or saturation bothers me a bit, not sure what it is.
As long as you're cloning out shoulders (fine with me) I'd try adding some blue/clouds/haze in the blank sky.
Still, an eye catching, interesting shot that hold your interest..
Tom

[Tom Graham]

Perhaps a sky like this???

123090

although, not so sure I like very much!!

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Tom but not a manipulation I am comfortable or would ever do to one of my images.

[Steve Canuel]

Well that's certainly a frame filler! I like the spread out ears and how you can see texture on both the top and bottom of the trunk.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I agree with Steve, this is certainly a frame filler and great to get so close to such an inquisitive animal such as this, the gentle giant.

I think you did a good job on your cloning, was it on the RH side?

Depending on your skills and ethics, I think Tom has made a good suggestion, however I guess it just down to personal preference and how far you take the image away from how it was shot. Adding some colour I don't think is too much of an infringement and can help in certain instances. Perhaps the colour in the RP could be less blue, adding just a hint, but again, just personal choice. Your cropping does help and extenuate those flattened out ears and works well, likewise having the trunk slightly off centre so you see the whole trunk.

I like the way you have capture the overall texture, folds and the undulations in the trunk, face & ears giving character to the subject. Although viewing on the laptop, (not ideal) I feel the head looks a little light, therefore just toning parts of the head down and in places the face, obviously avoiding key areas like the trunk to avoid loss of fine detail.

Seems the 5D & 70-200 is your favoured kit. :S3:

TFS
Steve

Not sure if this helps?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve and Steve. The tracker's shoulder was in the lower right corner. As I said in the op, it was an overcast morning. I prefer my images to be accurate representations of the conditions when captured. Changing the sky color and/or introducing clouds are not manipulations that I am comfortable with or would do. Usually I also prefer not to clone but did so here with full disclosure and to salvage the image.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

in-your-face comp here Rachel!
I too would normally not change sky colour etc.
But then I also prefer not to clone out shoulders - each to his/her own eh? :bg3:

your OP does look a bit crunchy on the ele's head? perhaps back down in that area by painting through the sharpening mask?
I love the upcurled trunk... :5

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Morkel, hmm I don't think this one is crunchy or oversharpened. Normally, I would have binned this image due to the tracker's shoulder but I couldn't resist the trunk position and frame filling ears :w3.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
late on this one, but i like it.
Quite frame filling with a good 3D look, for me.
I am fine with the sharpening, but would agree with toning down parts of the image ( sky , elephant face in parts)

TFS Andreas