Desert Elephant

[Rachel Hollander]

I thought the stark environment of Damaraland, Namibia and a Desert Elephant would lend themselves well to a b&w image for this month's theme. Taken in August 2012

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 200mm
1/400
f7.1
ISO 400
EC +.33
HH from safari vehicle, cropped slightly from left and below to remove some dung, converted in Silver Efex, levels, curves, selective color, dodging and burning, sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, very nice image with a good tonal range and the B&W works well here. I find the bright sky is drawing my attention a bit, so would suggest cropping a sliver of the top, but still leave some sky in. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, the baron landscape seems to tie in with the rather stark/contrast approach to the conversion. For me I feel the blacks are quite strong, hence the impression I have of being contrasty. Unlike Loi, I'm OK about the crop at the top, but might lose some off the LHS, but again, all personal taste. Not sure if it helps, but slightly easing off on the Darks & Shadows in specific areas and maybe adding a slight 'tone' to the image may help????

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel i quite like the image as presented from the conversion and the tonal range POV, nicely done.
The trotting pose into the open space is working well in this rough scenery. I might loose the two light sticks in the LLC by just cropping the image .

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Rachel, I like the setting/scene here and the contrast/tonal range is fitting to me - perhaps just dodge the elephant a hint more (midtones and highlights)?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Loi, Steve, Andreas and Morkel for the comments and suggestions. Much appreciated.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Rach, perfect placement of the ellie, and good detail showing up on him as well. Im fine with the bit of sky visible as it includes the layers of the rolling terrein.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Stu :wave: