Carl Walker
08-26-2014, 06:17 AM
This was taken from a photographic equipped boat in late April this year on the Chobe River, Botswana.
The light was fading fast and with dusk looming and we had to reposition ourselves quickly, as we had been trying to shoot a swimming pygmy goose on the LHS of this little island when the wading elephant herd came up from behind us quietly and unexpectedly. Too many "chiefs" (yeah!! we had a few of them) in the boat and a hesitant and confused skipper led us too close for a long lens and and a not so great light angle so I grabbed my old faithful and fired off some frames. Whilst dodging the odd knock on the head, the now free swivelling long lenses from others, who frantically sought out their own short lenses, the techs understandably get a bit strange on some of my shots. New experience for me this was:eek3:
I need some help with this image please!!
I have been playing with it for months now but keep coming back to it as I really like it for some reason.
The BG is not that great but I quite like the way the little oof calf comes into frame mid RHS with the game trail to the rear of him which kind of adds to a leading line into the image. It is a low angle shot from the boat and there is some tail, trunk - water flick and ear action from the FG calf standing next to Mom. There should probably be a little more on the LHS but this is FF. I could also shave off a bit on the bottom. There are also some oof geese in the bg that I left as it seems to add to the image.
Along with this I did some burning on the ele's to get more definition to the texture lines and creases although I feel it is fairly detailed.
My biggest issues, other than what pp work you are all sure to suggest:S3: for improvements here, are the noise in the BG along with the clouds of midges and dragon flies that cover the image. I took some of them out but there are just too many. I do however want to leave some as I like that it depicts exactly what I saw at the time although it might not improve the image that much.
For the first time really, I used the blur tool on the BG at 100% to get rid of mostly the artefact areas in the image that came with the raw file although I did do some NR. I also cloned and faded out some of the dark area behind the cow's rear left leg.
Did levels, curves
Added selective black and neutral points
Bearing in mind that I would like to print this do you think the crazy BG here will be fine or do I need to either toss it or whatever?:tinysmile_shy_t:
I processed a B&W that came out quite nice that I might post to show the difference with colour.
Canon 1D Mk IV
Canon 300mm F2,8 L IS USM Mk II
ISO 2500 - f2,8 - 1000/sec - +0,3 ev - AP - I opened up the lens hoping that being on the same plane and to accommodate fading light with additional ss to anticipate some action. I think this worked out ok.
After I saw the cooler version of this one I removed and loaded this warmer one. I see some magenta cast in it now. I warmed it using the hue - sat via the reds. Is there a better way to do this? Thanks
C&C always welcome and appreciated - thanks for looking
The light was fading fast and with dusk looming and we had to reposition ourselves quickly, as we had been trying to shoot a swimming pygmy goose on the LHS of this little island when the wading elephant herd came up from behind us quietly and unexpectedly. Too many "chiefs" (yeah!! we had a few of them) in the boat and a hesitant and confused skipper led us too close for a long lens and and a not so great light angle so I grabbed my old faithful and fired off some frames. Whilst dodging the odd knock on the head, the now free swivelling long lenses from others, who frantically sought out their own short lenses, the techs understandably get a bit strange on some of my shots. New experience for me this was:eek3:
I need some help with this image please!!
I have been playing with it for months now but keep coming back to it as I really like it for some reason.
The BG is not that great but I quite like the way the little oof calf comes into frame mid RHS with the game trail to the rear of him which kind of adds to a leading line into the image. It is a low angle shot from the boat and there is some tail, trunk - water flick and ear action from the FG calf standing next to Mom. There should probably be a little more on the LHS but this is FF. I could also shave off a bit on the bottom. There are also some oof geese in the bg that I left as it seems to add to the image.
Along with this I did some burning on the ele's to get more definition to the texture lines and creases although I feel it is fairly detailed.
My biggest issues, other than what pp work you are all sure to suggest:S3: for improvements here, are the noise in the BG along with the clouds of midges and dragon flies that cover the image. I took some of them out but there are just too many. I do however want to leave some as I like that it depicts exactly what I saw at the time although it might not improve the image that much.
For the first time really, I used the blur tool on the BG at 100% to get rid of mostly the artefact areas in the image that came with the raw file although I did do some NR. I also cloned and faded out some of the dark area behind the cow's rear left leg.
Did levels, curves
Added selective black and neutral points
Bearing in mind that I would like to print this do you think the crazy BG here will be fine or do I need to either toss it or whatever?:tinysmile_shy_t:
I processed a B&W that came out quite nice that I might post to show the difference with colour.
Canon 1D Mk IV
Canon 300mm F2,8 L IS USM Mk II
ISO 2500 - f2,8 - 1000/sec - +0,3 ev - AP - I opened up the lens hoping that being on the same plane and to accommodate fading light with additional ss to anticipate some action. I think this worked out ok.
After I saw the cooler version of this one I removed and loaded this warmer one. I see some magenta cast in it now. I warmed it using the hue - sat via the reds. Is there a better way to do this? Thanks
C&C always welcome and appreciated - thanks for looking