Flap necked Chameleon

[Carl Walker]

Found this little guy painfully trying cross the road to get to a bush when I came across him.
I lifted it off the ground and placed it on a leafless branch with the hope that it would stretch out and grab onto some leaves of a bush nearby. Transferring across to the other bush would be an ideal photographic opportunity which I took. Another of that to come later.

Winter sun was around 9am

7D with 70 - 200mm f2.8 L IS USM mk ii @ focal length of 70mm
ISO 400 - 1/250 sec - f8 - Manual
PS CC - levels, curves, Topaz plugins, crop, usm on save for web
HH

the BG is not so great and instead of cloning out the little bits of branch and bark below its lower neck I decided to leave it in. Not all that happy about the image re bringing out more detail. Will leave for you guys to advise. C&C always welcome

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Carl , i quite like this in terms of color , BKG not too bad for me, comp works too with the negative space on RHS.Glad you get some detail in the eye , normally with these guys mostly difficult ending up with a dark hole :bg3:.
I thought straight away , what is missing is just some ´ form ´ in the Chameleon , as Mr Detail said in the past.

So what i did is in PS : new empty layer , copy the green channel via APPLY Image into the layer , set blend mode to SOFT LIGHT , select the greens via COLOR RANGE , add layer mask to the layer , new curves layer set to MULTIPLY ,clip the layer with the underlying one .

Group the two layers together , add layer mask to the group , invert the mask , paint in the effect to just the subject . All very subjective , and this is just my vision and there are thousand others ..........

Hope that helps , TFS Andreas

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Andreas. I really appreciate your input here. I'll try this technique and see how it works out and let you know.:S3:

[Marc Mol]

The BG & slight bark under the neck is not a problem for me as you have nice detail, colour and light here.
The only other thing I would add Carl would have been to try a lower POV, seeing that you were able to tweak his environment.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Marc good advice about the lower POV , but then the eye of chameleon would not have been this nicely illuminated , because they follow the lens almost always, i have experienced .

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Marc - I tried a low POV but it brought in the skyline which I did not like. I do get where you going though!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Carl, nice to have you back posting again.

These little guys do have character, so well done in taking the photographic opportunity. If you could, moving to the left a fraction would have helped, and given a better balance to the comp. If you add some mid tone & selectively drop the exp (via a mask) a fraction, the subject it will add a bit more depth, tone & form overall. BKG is what it is so from you description a tough call it avoid certain issues. techs look good, DoF works for me.

Look forward to more.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Carl- I like the curve of the body and tail into the frame. I don't mind the bark or branch either. Good suggestions above for taking this up a notch.

TFS,
Rachel

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Steve and Rachel. Have not got around to playing with it yet.:w3

[Steve Canuel]

Great detail and color in this little guy. As for your BG, I'd try lightening it and reducing the contrast. Add a little blur if you like but I don't think it really needs it.