A load of bull dust!

[Marc Mol]

I got on the ground for this low down perspective of this old bull shaking off his dust bath, the light was subtle, yet golden.

Yes.......he really was this chocolate brown colour.:bg3: Would have liked a tad more lower room, but he was approaching rather quickly.

Selinda- Botswana

D4s 400 f/2.8E FL 1/800s f/5.6 ISO3600 @ ground level, cropped to 4;5 ratio, curves, levels, NIL clarity (thanks Andreas :w3) PS CC'15 & ACR.

Cheers
Marc

[keith mitchell]

You caught the action on this magnificent animal with all that dust, agree a little more at the bottom would have been good, must be great with one of these coming for you.
NIL clarity? would help my enquiring mind.

Keith.

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Keith


You caught the action on this magnificent animal with all that dust, agree a little more at the bottom would have been good, must be great with one of these coming for you.
NIL clarity? would help my enquiring mind.

Keith.

The NIL clarity is in reference to my recent discussion with Andreas about it's use, or more importantly it's over use in ACR, I had been using it globally (although in small amounts) in my workflow.
As clarity is basically a mid tone contrast adj i.e. another form of sharpening, it wasn't doing justice to a lot of my images with giving the appearance of gritiness in some scenes.

I still think using clarity on targetted images is beneficial but one needs to be more judicious in it's use.

I hope that explains it in some form. Andreas, being the PP guru would I'm sure be able to expand further on this.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks for replying to this Marc, very interesting.

Keith.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc this does look great from the content POV and the low angle is just making the bull even bigger and more impressive . :cheers:
I just wish the bull was placed a bit more to the right , but we cannot have it all at times .
I cannot comment on color and tone as i am looking on a screen at work , get back to this when i am home tonight .

I am surprised you tried what i suggested ..... but great you did , in the end YOU must be happy with the outcome and you have to be comfortable with the way how to achieve the desired result . Exploring different ways is also good from my POV .
Again please do not take this as a general rule , just as my personal view of this i.e. clarity usage . If one likes to use it .. great .

BTW you are absolutely right re Clarity and what it does , nothing more to add from my side .
Have you tried the Clarity filter in PS through a loaded mask ?

You can try it this way :Stamp on top ; load i.e. the green channel as selection ; cmd / ctrl H to hide the marching ants ; filter , camera raw , clarity 20 ,cmd / ctrl D to deselect . Done
Stamp on top ; load the green channel as selection ; invert the selection ; cmd/ ctrl to hide the marching ants ; filter , camera raw , clarity 20 , cmd / ctrl D to deselect .

Activate both layers ; cmd / ctrl G to group them together , add layer mask / invert , now start painting where you need the clarity , the advantage of this is you have so much more control about how much and where the clarity takes place ....
Plus you have three options to play with the opacity .

Btw thanks for the flowers regarding being the PP guru , these are big boots i cannot wear comfortably , i try all the time to do my best for my images and try to share my knowledge with others if wished ...... or sometimes not wished :w3.
There are at least some more folks around who know things better than me , and it is good as there is more room to learn ......

Cheers Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely angle, motion and tones here Marc.
Getting down low is so worth it - pity about the space at the bottom.

Good discussion on the clarity function in PP!
I love using clarity in LR the following way with most wildlife images where there is a distinct split between large OOF space and sharp/in-focus subject and focal plane:
- global clarity down by -25 to -30
- then brush the subject and obvious in-focus focal plane with adjustment brush set to zero adjustments (showing overlay to know what you are doing)
- then adjust the selected "brush strokes" by clarity upwards to +30 or +40, giving me a NET clarity on subject of 0 to 10 positive, and offsetting from the background nicely

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Andreas

Hi Marc this does look great from the content POV and the low angle is just making the bull even bigger and more impressive . :cheers:
I just wish the bull was placed a bit more to the right , but we cannot have it all at times .

BTW you are absolutely right re Clarity and what it does , nothing more to add from my side .
Have you tried the Clarity filter in PS through a loaded mask ?

You can try it this way :Stamp on top ; load i.e. the green channel as selection ; cmd / ctrl H to hide the marching ants ; filter , camera raw , clarity 20 ,cmd / ctrl D to deselect . Done
Stamp on top ; load the green channel as selection ; invert the selection ; cmd/ ctrl to hide the marching ants ; filter , camera raw , clarity 20 , cmd / ctrl D to deselect .

Activate both layers ; cmd / ctrl G to group them together , add layer mask / invert , now start painting where you need the clarity , the advantage of this is you have so much more control about how much and where the clarity takes place ....
Plus you have three options to play with the opacity .

Cheers Andreas

I do have more room on the LHS but it placed him too central for my taste and went with more room on RHS giving him room to cast off that dust........personal preference of course.

In future I'll be using Clarity as a filter/mask in PS for sure.:w3



Thanks Morkel


Lovely angle, motion and tones here Marc.
Getting down low is so worth it - pity about the space at the bottom.

Good discussion on the clarity function in PP!
I love using clarity in LR the following way with most wildlife images where there is a distinct split between large OOF space and sharp/in-focus subject and focal plane:
- global clarity down by -25 to -30
- then brush the subject and obvious in-focus focal plane with adjustment brush set to zero adjustments (showing overlay to know what you are doing)
- then adjust the selected "brush strokes" by clarity upwards to +30 or +40, giving me a NET clarity on subject of 0 to 10 positive, and offsetting from the background nicely

I very rarely use LR Morkel, preferring to do ALL in PS/ACR but your method would/could apply for PS as well I believe.

Your global adj of -25/30, then targetted +30/40 is certainly one to try and a great tip.

Cheers!

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb image Marc. Awesome pose, nice dust cloud and shooting angle.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Marc - I like the sense of movement here and the dust certainly adds. The low pov works well but agree about the more room below and placement a little more to the right. I am another that thinks there is overuse of the clarity slider and likes experimenting a bit with its effect.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Marc,

Impressive elephant bull and that low POV - combined with the dust and head shake - just make this image, wonderful capture!

I am so happy to see the "BPN Wildlife" spirit and atmosphere coming through in this thread, everyone chipping in with some technical info and just sharing opinions, what a pleasure to see you guys helping each other:5

Back to the image, lovely colours Marc, all looking natural and some careful PP work reveals a wild looking eye there from the ellie. I truly enjoyed viewing, as well as reading the comments.

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc back home at my machine ... so for me the colors do look very nice and the overall soft tones do work well too.
I think a tiny bit more sharpness locally applied would not hurt the image , or a faster SS in capture might have also been a tiny bit better . But easy too say from my chair :bg3:.

I had a quick play with this and did more or less what i told you above , used even 40 clarity in this event .

WDYT ? i added a screen shot of the layer stack in PS .

Cheers Andreas

[Stuart Philpott]

I adore this image Marc the light the movement the colours,low pov. I can't really go further at this stage but must add to Gabriela's post,being new. This the time taken to so freely try and help another is a joy to see. I've watched the way you wildlife guys treat each other for a long time now,I adore your collective spirit. I am a long way behind all of you but I hope in some small way I can contribute too,at the moment the best I can probably offer is a smile,but maybe with time more.

Lovely Marc thank you for sharing

Stu

[keith mitchell]

Mark have learned a lot from all the useful comments on your fine image.

Keith.

[Marc Mol]

Hi Marc back home at my machine ... so for me the colors do look very nice and the overall soft tones do work well too.
I think a tiny bit more sharpness locally applied would not hurt the image , or a faster SS in capture might have also been a tiny bit better . But easy too say from my chair :bg3:.

I had a quick play with this and did more or less what i told you above , used even 40 clarity in this event .

WDYT ? i added a screen shot of the layer stack in PS .

Cheers Andreas

Very nice Andreas, it has that little extra puch that does it justice, appreciate the workflow chart also. :cheers:

[Morkel Erasmus]

You can do the LR adjustment brush in ACR in PS for sure, Marc.
Let me know if you get stuck.
It gets me the right result with minimum effort - I am allergic to unnecessary effort at this stage (my schedule is, at least :bg3:)

[haseeb badar]

Hi MArc -- great low POV and nice timing to capture the dust bath . lovely colours and details . i would have preferred a bit more space on the RHS .
TFS !