Buffalo Close-Up

[Rachel Hollander]

Another experiment while in the midst of the 300 strong buffalo herd in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa.

Canon 7D
300 II
1/1000
f5.6
ISO 400
Beanbag from safari vehicle, ff, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

The experiment was successful, Rachel! Nice detail & colors - even the 'gooy' part at the nose (water at a drinking hole?)! :t3

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel , nice tight portrait of the buff . With good tonality and tone / color combo.
I just feel the sharpening a bit heavy in the white halo. Not knowing how you sharpen , just split the sharpening into 2 parts , one for the dark and one for the light halo and back off on the light halo for around 40 % , just thought .

TFS Andreas

[Carl Walker]

Nice portrait Rachel. Not sure if it just me but I am not seeing as much detail here except around the eye and boss area. Is it because of the slight fall off in dof? The white old bare skin does look a bit more defined than other areas. I know if it were mine I would be tempted to lightly burn some of the crease areas around the eye and the vein that runs down its cheek below the eye to give it more definition. But thats just me.Nice

[keith mitchell]

Hi Rachel I have read the other comments and found them very interesting obviously at a much higher level than myself,your image looks great to my eyes ,love that wet nose.
Regards Keith.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice light, colour and texture here Rachel. I wish the snout was fully in focus, or else that you rather went VERY shallow with the DOF - a taste thing I guess :t3.
I am not entirely sold on the framing and the choice to go vertical - perhaps a stronger option was shooting horizontal and going for the eye and the boss of the horn, eliminating the mouth entirely? :e3

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks guys for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated. Andreas - I use the sharpening action painting different opacities depending on need. It's quick and easy for web presentation.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Rachel, nice image/experiment of the buffalo. I have to agree with some in the comments, with the DOF. Morkel made a good suggestion with the crop or next time shot :)

Have a great day

ciao Anette

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, excellent details on the buffalo. These guys are hard to get such details. My thought was the same as Morkel's regarding the crop. if you can crop tighter, try it with a horizontal format above the snout. TFS. Loi