shadow

[Giovanni Frescura]

Hello
I have a problem
I made some shoots of dinamic situation but the problem is too much, for me, shadow on the wildlife
Have you any tips for better ?
Thanks
Canon 1dx
Canon 70/200 f.2,8 and extender 1x4
iso 1250
1/4000
f. 6,3

[Diane Miller]

A nice moment caught -- I love the action and dust. There is a slight magenta cast that is easy to fix in the raw conversion, with the tint slider. The tones look fine to me. There is a limit to what you can do to lighten shadows, but I don't see bad ones here. The tree and animals in the back might be improved a little. Just do what you can with the sliders in the Basic section if you use LR/ACR, and possibly then try Nik's Detail Extractor. Maybe mask it to the part of the image that needs it most.

The darkest tones might be not quite dark enough -- watch the histogram and keep blacks dark enough while you lighten darks.

[Giovanni Frescura]

this could be option b

[Gerald Kelberg]

Ciao Gio!

Nice action shot with these two fighting. I like the way the horns are locked and the way the light works on the dust they are kicking up. In terms of composition - I would be tempted to lose the two animals in the background, perhaps going for a tighter crop. There seem to be some haloes around the animals, and these are even stronger in the B& W version.

I hope you don't mind - have taken you image and tried different things to separate the Antelope and the background using Curves and luminosity masks, making the animals a little brighter in the darker mid-tones and and the same time trying not to brighten the background. Also changed the mid tones in Levels, added back a little colour Saturation and did a masked multiply layer. Maybe this is what you had in mind - not sure... Maybe still a bit more contrast required?

Best wishes, Gerald

[Giovanni Frescura]

Ciao Gio!

Nice action shot with these two fighting. I like the way the horns are locked and the way the light works on the dust they are kicking up. In terms of composition - I would be tempted to lose the two animals in the background, perhaps going for a tighter crop. There seem to be some haloes around the animals, and these are even stronger in the B& W version.

I hope you don't mind - have taken you image and tried different things to separate the Antelope and the background using Curves and luminosity masks, making the animals a little brighter in the darker mid-tones and and the same time trying not to brighten the background. Also changed the mid tones in Levels, added back a little colour Saturation and did a masked multiply layer. Maybe this is what you had in mind - not sure... Maybe still a bit more contrast required?

Best wishes, Gerald
Hello Gerald no problem...I aam happy for your colaboration.
About halos it could be ..but n problen to avoid it.
About the more brighten the animals ...ok (how you mad it ? with curves or what ?)...about the the gnu in background no problem...my more problem is the other oryx bcouse I no like too much take out something from the shoot and also becouse its quiete position is , for me, an interesting alternative to the other fighting situation
Thanks a lot for your atention
Gio

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hard to explain exactly what I did, because I was trying different things and honestly, I'm not sure which things had the best effect!

I suggest you have a look at this web site on Luminosity Masks - also in italiano - it is a good start and then you have to experiment! http://goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html

Regards, Gerald

[Giovanni Frescura]

thanks

[Diane Miller]

I think the B/W works well. I'm still not quite sure what you were asking about the original. (But your English is a LOT better than my Italian!) If you meant you thought there was too much shadow on the BG animal and tree, that can be fixed with a masked adjustment.

The halos are probably from sharpening, and maybe from some of the processing steps before that, which were brought out more by sharpening. Halos can be difficult to avoid.

Gerald's post did lighten the animals quite a bit, but also reduced their contrast. On my calibrated monitor, the original is more what I would expect from the lighting. The sides of both are in the shade, but they are not too dark. You did a good job of the tones.

I think the slight magenta cast is the main thing I see in the image.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I love this action shot Giovanni! I think the guy on his knees is in trouble because if the other guy just pushes hard to the front, it means a spear through the heart!

As far as the shadows are concerned: have you tried to raise the shadows bar way to the right in LR (presuming you have LR)?

[Hazel Grant]

I think you were also saying that you did not like to delete parts of a photo, like the animals in the background. This is your option, of course, but it comes down to definition. If you wish to preserve only original shots, that's one thing. If you wish, however, to create a piece of art, that's another. I found the background animals in this instance very blurry and thus distracting.

[Giovanni Frescura]

I love this action shot Giovanni! I think the guy on his knees is in trouble because if the other guy just pushes hard to the front, it means a spear through the heart!

As far as the shadows are concerned: have you tried to raise the shadows bar way to the right in LR (presuming you have LR)?

Hello Tobie
thanks
I use Photoshop CC...but your reply is about the shoot original or b/n
Which , for you could be better ?
Gio

[Giovanni Frescura]

I think you were also saying that you did not like to delete parts of a photo, like the animals in the background. This is your option, of course, but it comes down to definition. If you wish to preserve only original shots, that's one thing. If you wish, however, to create a piece of art, that's another. I found the background animals in this instance very blurry and thus distracting.

Hello Hazel
You are tue ...but for many contest isn't possible delete some parts...they ask the raw file...
Off course the backround is no good .
So you prefer this other shoot , I think

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

<snip>your reply is about the shoot original or b/n. Which , for you could be better ?Gio

I was referring to your original shot Gio. In the mean time you've loaded your pano crop in frame #12 which is not a bad option at all. The shadow strength for that (frame #12) version looks perfect on my monitor - no need to fiddle with it.

[Giovanni Frescura]

I was referring to your original shot Gio. In the mean time you've loaded your pano crop in frame #12 which is not a bad option at all. The shadow strength for that (frame #12) version looks perfect on my monitor - no need to fiddle with it.
it is a different shoot of the same situaion. I cropped a little but in this case no other animals in the background so I was free to decide as cut it

[Diane Miller]

I think this last shot is better than the original. The dust shows stronger movement, and the tones look good to me.

[Ian Cassell]

Giovanni, what a wonderful thing to see. I think the original image would work well as a Pano, with a horizontal crop just below the tree.

[Arthur Morris]

A nice action shot and you did well despite the difficult lighting conditions. And I enjoyed seeing the various iterations of the image from the good folks here in ETL.

You problems began by having your vehicle stop in the wrong position; the sun is coming 90 degrees from your left.... When you work 90 degrees off sun angle you put yourself that is too deep to dig out of. In most cases you need to work with shadow pointing at the subject.... I would have had the van stop on sun angle and hoped that the animals re-oriented themselves..... I'd rather not take a single image than work in bright sun with 90 degree light....

[Giovanni Frescura]

Giovanni, what a wonderful thing to see. I think the original image would work well as a Pano, with a horizontal crop just below the tree.

Hello Ian
your option could be fine..but the problem is that I crop under the tree the other gamesbok (if I no delete) is too much near to up