Just a Buffalo Passing By

[Gabriela Plesea]

It all happened so fast, this buffalo was trying to cross the road in front of our vehicle and all I got is one image, shot in a hurry through the car window. I almost deleted it tonight, there was no particular expression on its face, no eye contact and nothing really inspired me to work on this. Nevertheless I thought I would give it a try, so here it is. My PP work has killed some of the detail in the blacks but when I brought it back the buffalo looked rather lifeless, so I went with my gut feeling and did what I thought was appropriate to give this fellow a little life. Let me know what you think:w3, too tight at the top? does the bright BG bother you? colour casts? too sharp? I personally prefer this a little contrasty and vibrant, on the other hand a B/W might be the way to go.

Nikon D4
Nikon 500 F4.0
ISO 1000
F6.3
1/1250s

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - I like high key images so I like this. I'm ok with the space around. It does look a bit too sharp but you've brought out nice tones and detail in the light areas. I think you can probably bring up a little bit of detail in the shadows (but not too much). I would also burn the highlights on the horns a little if it were mine. What was the bg? I think a b&w would work really well with this.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, like the concept and the way you have portrayed the subject. The BKG really lifts the Buffalo and it seems to 'project' the subject. The light looks a tad harsh and I think you could temper this quite easily, especially the highlights, may be with a luminosity layer/selective exposure, or back in the RAW converter. I might also suggest a mid tone adjustment to just add again some more tonal depth in the darks/mid shadows. Dropping the Cyan & Blue also helps where it's creeping in in the horns. I would agree with you, extend the canvas above will help. Sharpness, I think it's OK, perhaps pull it back a fraction, but again all personal taste, I now tend to back it off a fraction.

Keep the thought process & exploring up, it great way to explore & learn.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Rachel and Steve,

The light was quite harsh, this was shot after lunch as we were driving home through the game reserve. Road was narrow, buffalo came out suddenly from a drainage line and crossed the road in front of us, I quickly took this frame when he was in the clear. I was happy then thinking there was just pale blue sky behind him and I would not have to worry about the grass, although there was a bit of vegetation which I took out during processing.

I could bring back the colour blue in the sky but I kind of like this white BG:bg3: I will pull back on the sharpness, fix the colour casts, work on the midtones and then repost:w3, thank you so much!!! Maybe try a B/W too:S3:

I see some cyan and blue now on my laptop, did not see it last night on the big screen, maybe my monitor needs calibration - will look into it:w3


Warmest regards to you both,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela , you did a nice job in that hectic .
Like this in general , not feeling it is too tight .
You know i like it contrasty , but think the contrast is a wee bit too heavy , i would tame the HL and try to get a tad more detail out of the shadows .
Sharpening looks a wee bit too much , remember i told you once , split the sharpening into two halves and reduce the white halo by roughly 50 % and see how that looks.

BTW - normally i never see an exciting expression on their faces when they are kind of relaxed ..............:bg3:.

TFS Andreas

[Don Railton]

Hi Gabriela. Nice catch...! I too like the high key look. I can see why all the mods suggested have been suggested, and think they will help. I have nothing to add.

Regards
Don

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you all so much, I realise this needs a rework, will be back:5

Have a great week-end,

[Marc Mol]

This is worth a bit of a reworking here Gabriela as you have such a clean BG with good detail.:w3

TFS

[Dumay de Boulle]

I like the details and the textures. The clean BG is great. I would maybe just tone down the saturation a touch. Even B&W should work nicely.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Marc and Dumay, was going to do an RP this week-end but ended up working on other stuff:bg3:, will try a B/W and post soon:5

Have a wonderful day!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice light and profile. I concur with the suggestions above and look forward to the rework.
Was the sky clean and high key like that originally? Did you work on it at all Gabriela? Just curious.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dearest Morkel,

Was away at the time you passed this comment and only saw it now-so sorry. The light was very harsh and the sky was almost white, all I had to do is desaturate blues...Would like to try a B/W here, will post soon!

Warmest regards,