Bath Time

[Loi Nguyen]

I had fun watching this elephant herd taking a bath at a swamp. It was a cloudy-hazy day with the sun just broke thru.

5D3
24-70F4 II @ 55mm
1/80
F18
ISO-400
Handheld

Cropped for pano
Applied cooling filter to the sky, which was hazy and grey, darkened it a bit too.

Appreciate your comments

Thank you

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, looks like a fun time here.

Firstly, what was the reason for choosing f/18 and a SS of 1/80, as I do worry about the SS & sharpness here? I do however like though the habitat/environment feel here, with the layering of colours & tones leading to the distant mountains in the BKG. Overall it seems to have a lot of red running through it, might look perhaps at both Red & Magenta and getting more of a cleaner blue sky & whiter clouds, as they seems to carry a bit of a colour tinge to them.

TFS
Steve

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Steve, I was hoping to get both the elephants and the distant hill in sharp focus, thus the F18 aperture. However, it was a very hazy day and even with naked eye, the distant hill was not in sharp focus. I did run a WB check, but you were right, there were a lot of Red and MAgnenta. So here is a RP with Red and MAgnenta reduced by -10 in Color Balance. I tried, but couldn't get a clear sky with white cloud :(.

Thanks as always.

Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Just sent you a note, but will have a play with the OP.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Steve, thanks a million for your guidance. Now I have learned how to use Selective Color to pull out the cloud and the mountains in the BG. Cropped less to show off the cloud! Loi

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Loi

I really likes this one. From the examples here I like the OP most. I do see that there is some red in the OP in the sky. That could be handled. But I do like the red in the mud and on the elephants. I also like the distant to be more hazy. I´m not so found of the sky in this last repost. Just my take.

TFS / Gregor

[Stan Cunningham]

Like the last RP unless the mud was much redder. Nice job Loi, you had a great trip.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi,
like the relaxed bathing/drinking scene of the elephants you captured here.

The version in pane 5 is not working for me for color and tones, image looks flat in the subjects and its surroundings and the sky looks too cyan , specially in the WHITE clouds .I think i would leave the haze in the BKG cause it looks quite natural , for me.

TFS Andreas

[Robert Amoruso]

I would suggest cropping this right at the green grass line above the elephants.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, thank you for your helpful comments. I have a lot of fun with this image and it is a good image for me to learn PP. I have taken into your comments and started from scratch. Hopefully you will like this better.

Reduced the cyan of the sky and brought out more structure for the cloud while keeping the distant hill in good contrast.
Increased exposure by 0.5EV in CS6
Adjusted Levels of the bottom portion of the image without the sky.

Thanks

Loi

[edwardselfe]

Completely agree with chopping a bit off the bottom and I like the colours in your final post, but I think that they might be just a little too saturated. I would try to reduce global Vibrance a little and watch as it takes the blue, green and reds down a tiny bit - and I mean a tiny bit. Otherwise looks nice. Elephants are all doing something interesting and sharpness looks good if a little too much on the bottom right hand corner?
You must have a steady hand!
Ed

[Morkel Erasmus]

A nice scene, Loi. Steve hit the nail on the head but I'm afraid none of the reposts have "hit the spot" IMHO. The sky looks "muddy" in tone and flat in contrast, with an unnatural blue to it. I'd rather try and process the RAW file twice, once for FG/eles and once for the sky/BG and then blend them together with a grad mask.

[Markus Jais]

Great behavior. I like the slight pano format. The 3rd version is my favorite.

Markus

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - Sorry I'm late to this one. I was away for the long weekend. Nice scene but I have to agree with Morkel that the color and tones don't look right in any of the posts. It's worth starting over from scratch with this one. If you want to post a jpeg of the RAW or email the RAW, we can take a look and make better suggestions.

TFS,
Rachel

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Loi,
I was just there....so OP red dirt is the closest! Tough to get good angles on all the subjects but I think you did well.