GOLIATH AND DAVID !

[haseeb badar]

Hello everyone !

Thank you for your C&C's on my previous post .

Here is another image for this months theme .

Image taken at Amboseli , Kenya .

DPP 4 , CS6 , Levels, selective colour , selective sharpening ,shadow highlights, contrast , FF .

Canon 1DMK IV , Canon 70-200m f2.8 IS II , bean bag .

ss: 1/1000, f/8, iso 800.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Haseeb, I love the perspective you have created on this one, however I just wished you were in one of Morkel's 'bunkers' to achieve that really low PoV, then shoot with the 16-35 lens. As it providers both safety for you, but ultimately a real cool perspective which you rarely can achieve from a vehicle, or on foot, unless you fancy your chances at close quarters????

Personally I would like to have more FG (grass) it's just too tight I feel, so perhaps zooming/pulling out/back a bit more would have helped, then having a tad more image content you could then level the BKG, as I think it needs a slight CCW rotation. Also just going back a fraction to the right may have offered a better HA, plus with hindsight, lost the Elephant in the BKG???? If you used S/H then it was with a light hand I think, as it's a tool I hate because it can be quite an aggressive tool, you need to master Curves & Channels I feel to give yourself grater scope and with better results IMHO, but avoiding saturating the image too much :S3:. Techs look good, with a nice SS, it's a nice lens the 70-200 f/2.8.

I see you forwarded the RAW (which I will look at next week when I'm back), but you can get a lot more from the sky to create more 'depth' at least. I'll drop you a thought on how, avoiding more complicated routes, as I have mentioned this a number of times before.

TFS
Steve

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Steve .

Yes I took my chance of getting flat on the ground . i could have been slightly wider had i out on the 5dMk III but no time for that . I have an image with the ele in the BKG cant be seen but the main subject didnt had that curled trunk at that time hence went for this one . Shadow highlights was very judiciously used . would like to develop more on that curves and channels , i really find it tough for now .

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Haseeb - Great low perspective. Steve has covered the critique well. I just want to add to watch the halos where the ele meets the sky from selecting the ele. Do you feather your selections?

TFS,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Rachel .

No i don't feather the selection .

[Rachel Hollander]

Haseeb - try feathering to help eliminate the halos.

Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Haseeb, I can see your thinking about the title and the juxtapose of the two elephants, but for me the FG elephant is so strong, personally I feel it dominates the scene and so the viewer only see this, or perhaps that is just me? Good call on the trunk choice.

As I said, I'll drop you a line later, just 'spinning plates' at present!!!!

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Rachel .

@Steve : I think you have got my thinking process behind the choice of the frame . And yes got your point .

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Haseeb, you daring devil! must have been exciting to lie on the ground with elephants close by. Amboseli elephants are habituated to the presence of safari vehicle, so it is as safe there as any. Steve gave you good pointers already. For me, the image would have been stronger had the elephant been more parallel to the sensor's plane. It's a good concept and worth trying again. If you are interested in bunker, do check out Mashatu. Loi

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Loi !

[Morkel Erasmus]

Great angle and perspective here Haseeb. Was going to ask if you were lying on the ground but you covered that.
A great way to treat both elephants and sky here is to use luminosity masks (would also avoid the halos).

Why don't you pop me the RAW file on Dropbox and I'll play with it? Use morksnork@gmail.com :)

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Morkel ! Raw file sent :)

[Steve Kaluski]

Haseeb, I'll leave the RAW with Morkel to do, I'm sure he can also explain about using Luminosity masks too. Again no need for me to add any more over the weekend for you now, then you are all set.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Haseeb
Thanks for the RAW file.
Here's my quick take on it. I am not too familiar with DPP these days (because I shoot Nikon, hah). I worked this just in PS CC, using the Adobe RAW converter.

I will post my RAW settings in the following frame as screenshot. I also enabled lens profile and removed chromatic abberation which was quite prevalent in the file.

After opening in PS, the following steps:

- downsize to 1200px
- ran light lights luminosity mask by using CTL+ALT+SHIFT and the "load channels as selection" option in the channels tab
- duplicated the resulting layer, ran a multiply blend mode (by double clicking on the highlights layer) at 45%
- used Nik Color Efex with a combination of Tonal Contrast and Pro Contrast with very slight settings, never a good idea to overcook these sliders
- made the Nik layer 55% opaque as well
- one round of smart sharpen at 0.2px 100%
- some slight dodging of shadows and midtones on the elephant to bring out texture and detail

What do you think?

[Morkel Erasmus]

RAW settings on the basic panel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Haseeb i really love those shots of Elephants , as Steve said Morkel has created stunning ones in Namibia from the bunker .
This does look good too , from my POV , but David is a bit more distracting than helping the image from my POV .
You have nice detail in the Elephant and i like the tones , the sky seems a bit light and you have lost detail that is in the raw file , see what Morkel was able to squeeze out of the sky .
I think worth to experiment , just make two copies , a light and a dark one ( one sky , one elephant ) and blend them together in PS .

I think the RP by Morkel is a bit overdone in the 1/2 tones right through the blacks , but upwards the 1/2 tones it look good to me .

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Morkel and Andreas !

@ Morkel - Your RP gives a good direction as to how it should have been done . So i will try to process it in the same manner for another frame from this series . The sky certainly looks great now with all those details it has now . The elephant appears slightly darker than what i remember from the scene but it blends very well with the whole settings .

Thanks for all the steps as well it helps in understanding the things better .

[Gabriela Plesea]

Nice work Haseeb,

Love the POV here and that big sky behind the ellie. As well as those grass bits flying:) David is cute indeed, although I am not so sure his presence adds to the image. I would have liked a tad more at the bottom of the frame, if possible.

Nice contribution from Morkel who adds much needed punch to the image.

Overall a pleasant image I enjoyed viewing, thank you so much for sharing!

Kind regards,

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Gabriela ! Will have to add canvas at the bottom as it is full frame and no space as shot .

[Bill Nuttall]

Haseeb

I would try this image in B & W

(and think about getting rid of David as he is not in a great position) - maybe had he been between the four legs?

[Bill Nuttall]

It is a serious suggestion

have a look at this guys work - Elephants

http://davidyarrow.photography/project_post/giants-kingdom/ (http://davidyarrow.photography/gallery/wildlife/)

plus another who works in B & W that I can point you to

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Bill ! I really appreciate for your time and suggestion on this . I too thought of a BW version but went for the colour instead .

The link you shared has some amazing BW images , great work by the photographer , will look into it thoroughly .