Elephant Scenery

[Morkel Erasmus]

Happy 2015 everyone! I wish all of you tremendous sightings, light and photographic growth in the coming year. Thanks for making the BPN Wildlife Forum the best place on the WWW to post and improve your photography and processing in the genre :t3:cheers::5

This is from a memorable afternoon on the Chobe river in March last year - shortly after a storm blew through and left the air crisp, clear and vibrant.
We were able to coax our boat in close to where these young boys were frolicking in the river.

I just posted my own 2014 photographic review on my blog - not so much my overall personal favourites as I did in previous years, but more a collection of images from my personal photographic project: wider angle wildlife images. I call it "10 below 100", 10 images taken at focal lengths of 100mm or less. I hope you enjoy it:
http://blog.morkelerasmus.com/2015/01/10-below-100-my-reflection-on-2014.html

Techs for this image:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm
Kenko Pro CPL
f5.6 | 1/320 SS | ISO-450
EV +0.3

[Nancy Bell]

I really like the concept of "below 100mm" as a different approach to wildlife images. It works well with these ellies as they are certainly big enough to be important elements in the image. And by encompassing a wider angle with more environment and other elephants, a story can be conveyed. I like that several of the ellies are above the horizon and backed only by sky, to make them easily visible. I can picture where this is as I was on the Chobe in the same place just a month after you last year.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - A nice scene with some of the eles in the water and some on the riverbank and a dramatic sky. I too like the wider views. I think I would open up the midtones, except in the sky, to bring out more detail and texture in the eles both on land and particularly in the water. As is that part of the image feels a tad dark. You also know I was going to say there's a halo where the eles meet the sky. Here's a rp along the lines I was thinking though perhaps overdone to show the difference. WDYT?

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Cheers Nancy & Rachel!

Rachel:
1. Re halo - noted it after posting, but it's not there on my initial 1920px jpg from the high res, and not on the other 1000px version I save for other uses (bigger than 400kb). It seems it may be a compression halo from rendering this 36mp FF image down to a size that BPN can handle, been seeing that a lot in my postings from images taken with the D800 where there's a distinct sky/subject separation. I might need to find a better way to work down those files to the 400kb limit :e3

2. Re RP - I see where you were going, though I agree it was overdone but to prove a point it works. I think somewhere between them would be ideal - that being said I went for a very natural look&feel exposure wise, I felt it reflects conditions on the day, but it doesn't hurt teasing out some more detail in the subjects to make them stand out more eh...

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice scene, I would like to see the post a little lighter as well.., probably the ground and Eliies as I like the sky as is.

[Carl Walker]

A typical Chobe scene Morkel - great concept idea - Perhaps this or something similar could be incorporated in one of our themes later on down the line. Agree with some subtle lightening but not too much.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel love the scene with the elephants in the water and on the edge plus the ones already walking away , this image tells a story we might imagine what happened .
Nicely composed with a great sky . Like the colors and tones overall but i might also go a bit lighter in the 3/4 tones , Rachel went way too far , just looks washed out now .

Regarding your halo (s) , not only where the ellies meet the sky :w3. From my experience with my own images it is just a sharpening issue , if the halo is visible in the HiRes ( even only slightly) you amplify the halo depending on the downsizing algorithm more or less . It has not that much to do with the final file size, saying this a gutt feeling .
Are you still using Phillip Perolds action for web resizing ?
I did not not like it because his action amplifies those halos , from my POV.

TFS Andreas

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Awesome scene Morkel. I like the dramatic sky, the landscape and the elephants on land & in water. Wonderfully captured.

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is lovely Morkel, I have never seen Chobe but now I want to go there:w3 I love the colours and atmosphere in the OP, would just lighten the ellies a bit. I like the POV and the sky is awesome, very dramatic and I truly enjoyed viewing, thank you for this post:cheers:

Warmest regards,

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Morkel

Agree would see the Ellies bit lighter, love the story in the image. Very dramatic skies!

Will there be a sub folder for lions in your project?:bugeyed:

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Lovely shot Morkel - it looks like the two ellies are having a serious discussion (probably talking about the tourists?)! I love the sky and agree with a version between Rachel's and yours.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks for your thoughts, folks!


Regarding your halo (s) , not only where the ellies meet the sky :w3. From my experience with my own images it is just a sharpening issue , if the halo is visible in the HiRes ( even only slightly) you amplify the halo depending on the downsizing algorithm more or less . It has not that much to do with the final file size, saying this a gutt feeling .
Are you still using Phillip Perolds action for web resizing ?
I did not not like it because his action amplifies those halos , from my POV.

TFS Andreas

Hey Andreas - I didn't use the Perold action here, I used one of Hougaard Malan's actions for landscapes which normally works very well and I thought it would because of the landscape nature of the shot. I used his action to go from full res to 1920px and didn't sharpen again from there after going down to 1000px as it looked sharp enough. As I said at 1920px the halos are not there so will probably just rework and manually sharpen to see if it makes a difference...

[Sadananda Koppalkar]

Wow .. wonderful composition here...the low level shot and the 2 elephants walking behind turning other way round creates a scene of their natural environment and activity.. TFS :)

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, I like this 'animalscape' and is a nice change. The feeling of being in the water is a good one and I like the split/ration of land to sky. The dramatic sky brings a nice impact to the scene, but glad it's not to dramatic or pushed. In an ideal world, having the two elephants walking on the RHS would have been better if it was towards you rather than walking away, but that's life.

So this year, are you 'mothballing' all large lens and to push yourself with smaller ones? :S3:

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel just tried Hougaard´s latest action on my upcoming post , as i thought it just amplifies any halo by the way the file gets downsized and sharpened , just my impression .
I tried to safe the same file with 400 kb and with a 1000 kb , opened both in PS there is no significant difference in the halos , in the 400 kb file i had more issues with posterization rather than halo .

Well Morkel just my observations with my images , must not be the same with yours , what i normally do before resizing i add a final levels layer and check if there are any enemies in the file , like halo/ dust bunnies etc. If i find a halo i look for the layer who caused the halo and try to reduce or completely eliminate the halo . But i also forget to do some times or i am in a rush :bg3:.

Cheers Andreas

BTW - if you want to use an action that works better in terms of halos ( but has not got the HL stuff like Hougaard ) and has got more options , even with an automated water sign applied . Just google " Andreas Resch " he is an Austrian landscape photographer and you can download the web sharpening action for free on his website , just give it a go and compare .