Family Portrait

[Loi Nguyen]

Reworked one of the images taken last Summer. The sky was a dull grey, so added a Cooling filter. Used Curves to lighten the face of the baby.

1DX
500f4 II
1/800
f8
ISO-400
Handheld

UMS 100/0.3/0 for the elies in the front
UMS 80/0.7/0 for the ones in back

Do they look too crunchy?

Can't believe how fast time flies. in 2 1/2 months we will be back in Africa - Botswana this time.

Have no Wildlife here that I can shoot in SoCal.

Thank you and wish everyone a productive 2014

Loi

[William Dickson]

Coolio, luv it

[Douglas Bolt]

I don't think they are too crunchy. Who likes smooth elephant skin! I like the composition. Well balanced with just the right amount of space around the animals.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, nice heard of elephants, always difficult to get clear heads in the back of a group like this.

Not sure about the blue, is this a carry over from the kite? Looks like you got more tonal range in this image compared to the previous ones, and good to see there is detail & tone in the tusks. I don't mind the crop as presented, but if it is a crop then perhaps having a little more room all round might be nice? Perhaps a little more IDSO, but again, since this was taken you have come a long way. :w3 Nice touch having the egrets, just adds that little bit of extra, to the image. Personally I wouldn't have split the sharpening and I might have left the rear ones, but I do wonder if a tad more USM wouldn't hurt, WDYT? Keep that middle figure to 0.3.

To me, there appears to be a very slight halo running along the back of the elephants where it touches the sky, perhaps have a look when you have a minute.

You will love Botswana, especially where you are going, just make sure you say hi to Lizzie for me. :w3

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - I was about to post about the selection halo where the eles meet the sky but Steve beat me to it. It's a nice grouping and the tones/curves adjustments look good. It doesn't look crunchy to me at all. It's often worth going back to old files and applying newly learned pp. This one is no exception. I'm sure you'll love Botswana.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi, nice heard of elephants, always difficult to get clear heads in the back of a group like this.

Not sure about the blue, is this a carry over from the kite? Looks like you got more tonal range in this image compared to the previous ones, and good to see there is detail & tone in the tusks. I don't mind the crop as presented, but if it is a crop then perhaps having a little more room all round might be nice? Perhaps a little more IDSO, but again, since this was taken you have come a long way. :w3 Nice touch having the egrets, just adds that little bit of extra, to the image. Personally I wouldn't have split the sharpening and I might have left the rear ones, but I do wonder if a tad more USM wouldn't hurt, WDYT? Keep that middle figure to 0.3.

To me, there appears to be a very slight halo running along the back of the elephants where it touches the sky, perhaps have a look when you have a minute.

You will love Botswana, especially where you are going, just make sure you say hi to Lizzie for me. :w3

TFS
Steve

Steve, I converted the image in LR5 "as shot" at 5500 and the "auto" at 5650, so pretty close. No neutral grey here. Tried to find a neutral grey in CS6, but not findign one and I ended up adding too much Red. So I just reduced the blue a little using Saturation. don't see much difference here.

You were right about not bothering with spliting the sharpening. Here is a RP with the same 100/0.3.0 for all.

I have a little more room on the LHS and top, but not RHS, thus cropping the left to make it a little more equi distanct especially the eles were walking from left to right.

Halo: I resharpened the image here, hopefully addressing the halo issue.

Thank you again for your help. Will say hello to Lizzie for you.

Loi

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice scene Loi. Always tricky to get good positioning from all the members of the herd.
I would darken midtones a tad, especially on the elephants. Ditto on the halo.
I personally don't mind the blue sky here, but might darken it a tad?

[Rachel Hollander]

Loi - the halo is still there in the rp. I don't think it is a sharpening halo, rather it is from the selection.

[Steve Kaluski]

Tried to find a neutral grey in CS6, but not findign one and I ended up adding too much Red.

To do it in PS is simple, but a little complicated, you need to create a layer and a Threshold layer etc, once I remember I will let you know.

[Loi Nguyen]

Loi - the halo is still there in the rp. I don't think it is a sharpening halo, rather it is from the selection.

Rachel, the halo is probably from the application of the Photo Filter to the sky. I was being careful, but not enough. No selection was used here.

Morkel, I increased the exposure by 1/3 EV, so I reduced the exposure by 1/6, not worth reposting though.

Thank you

[edwardselfe]

I like this a lot. Nice arrangement of the elephants and dof and cattle egrets. Hard lighting conditions as the overcast sky hasn't helped to bring out the detail on the elephants, but your processing has done well to maintain the textures. I would also be tempted to look at this as a B&W. The composition's great, and the sharpness excellent, but the colour's perhaps the weakest part (as you have found yourself with trying to find a WB point). Just an idea.
Ed

[Steve Kaluski]

I would also be tempted to look at this as a B&W.

Great call Ed, Loi this could work really well and you could perhaps take advantage of the tonal range?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey folks how to get the neutral mid point in PS ???

Ask the master of disaster , me.

Open color image in PS .
New empty layer , fill it with 50 % grey, set blend mode to `Difference`.
New threshold layer, move the slider all the way to the left, then start moving the slider to the right , the first black solid patches are representing the tonal mid tones in the image….
Take the eyedropper and set the point to whatever area in the image is just black…. at this stage.
Now you have a tonal mid point.

hope that helps.

Cheers Andreas

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi,
lovely family scene of the elephants with a nice inclusion of the egrets . Good details in the whole frame , which is nice.
I personally would like to see more tonal depth in the image and a slightly cooler look, too yellow for my taste , specially in the elephants.
I am fine with the blue sky , but not sure about the hue…
The crop is slightly too tight for my liking.

Just think about my thoughts, or leave as you did. All is good.
TFS Andrea

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I think that was what I was trying to remember, cheers. Did I send that to you, I know the girls had the recipe from me, but as I rarely use it, I tend to forget, old age. :bg3:

[Andreas Liedmann]

No Steve, i cannot remember that you have ever sent me any kind of practical help……… you told me go the hard way find out yourself…………….. LOL !!!!!! So i found out myself….
Just kidding, honestly . ( i am just giggling while i write this, want to see your face at the same time, with the swollen throat.

To be serious you did not sent me this, because i did not ask you .

Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

( i am just giggling while i write this, want to see your face at the same time, with the swollen throat.

LOL.

I will ask Rachel if she has it and compare. :S3:

Here you go:

Neutral or Mid Point Adjustment
- Open an image and create a new layer above
- Edit menu choose Fill, when this pops up choose 50% grey & fill
- Now go to the layers panel and change the blend mode to Difference, weird hey, funky

- Now at the foot of the Layers panel is a circle cut in two, click on that and scroll to Threshold
- Now move the RH slider all the way to the Left until it goes white, now slowly drag the slider back to the right
- As soon as you start to see black appearing that is your mid grey point (neutral) STOP
- Using the eyedropper from the tool palette click shift and with the eyedropper click on the black area
- Now click on the cancel button in the Threshold dialog or turn the eye off in layers

Now drag the mid grey layer you created into the bin & delete
Now click on Curves adj, click on the mid grey dropper and then click on the Colour sampler marker that you identified in the image, job done.

[Martin Dunn]

A nice family portrait Loi. Impressive tusker on the RH side.
My only regret is that the small elephant in the middle front has his(her?) trunk abscured by the grassy mound mound.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Better than my quick &dirty version ,Mr Detail.

But actually there is no "RH slider " in the Threshold dialogue , there is only one slider :bg3:.

To be correct…..

Regards Andreas

[Dvir Barkay]

Beautiful shot, they are such magnificent animals. I don't think that it looks crunchy at all actually.