Indian Gazelle

[Kartikeya Puri]

http://arrozinc.com/ranthambhore/IMG_0616.JPG

Chinkara or Indian Gazelle are shy creatures found in grassland and desert areas of South Asia. They can go without water for long time. Generally they cover their need for water through plants and dew.

Shot in Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan.

Shot with 20D + 100-400L

320mm@f/5.6, 1/800 sec, EC: -0.33 ev (-1/3)

What I did not like:
1. Shadow of the head falling on the back.
2. Left side of the face is dark

What I liked about the shot:
1. I could get very close to this shy beauty
2. I could get it to pose for a while (5 minutes or so)

As always I would look forward to your expert comments and critic to improve myself.

[David Fletcher]

Like your self critique. Hopefully, you will have a bag load of variations, given it gave you so long. As shown, it needs sharpening and am sure it'll crisp up nicely. The shadow of the head doesn't bother me, but would have liked the face better lit rather than the body.

[Kiran Khanzode]

Kartikeya,

Here's your Gazelle after a few edits:
In ACR:
Added temp by +8
Increased exposure by +0.25
Changed Clarity to +35

Then, in CS3:

1. Cloned the shadows on the back ( quick selection and clone stamp). Grafted some skin from the back, which matched the texture and light :-)

2. Selectively brightened up the face and neck with a curves adjustment layer and brush tool with 20% opacity

3. Toned down the light on the right thigh - happened due to my +.25 exposure increase (using curves adjustment layer )

4. Added Guassian blur (0.8 pix) on the BG, just to seperate him a bit more from the BG

5. Smart sharpened (180%, 1.3 pixel). The image took these sharpness settings very well

6. Sharpened the catchlight in the eye and a few white pixels on the horns.

7. Removed any halos caused by the aggressive sharpening by using the blur tool at 20% around areas that showed halos after sharpening.

See if you like it.

[Robert Amoruso]

Kartikeya (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/member.php?u=6808),

Kiran did a great job with the processing tweaks (thanks Kiran for posting the details so precisely). As you mentioned that he posed for you 5 minutes I have some compositional suggestions for you.

1) A bit more room on the bottom. As you can see some of the foot is covered in the grass. You have to be careful to provide enough room to allow the covered base of the feet (virtual feet) to have a firm grounding.

2) A bit more room behind - it appears cramped.

3) Make image of animal after it moved forward to eliminate bush sticking up out of the back. Or move around to change the BG relative to the animal.

Good job getting gazelle in a complimentary habitat and relatively clear of FG obstructions.

[Kartikeya Puri]

Thanks Kiran for posting the precise details of the processing. It is really helpful for someone not so familiar with it. I got to get me some material on PS. I like your Gazelle better than the original :-)

Robert, points taken. I think I never stopped and actively thought about composition a lot. I need to be more careful of the composition.

David, I have a few variations. As this was a cold morning, the gazelle was kind of slow. Once he stretched a bit, he was off like an arrow. I will try and find something that has more even light.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I learn something new here everyday.

Cheers,
Kartik

[Fabs Forns]

Excellent pose and surroundings made much better by the repost.

Thanks, Kiran, both for the work and the details :)

[Kiran Khanzode]

Robert, Kartikeya and Fabs,

Glad you liked the changes I made to the chinkara.

Robert, I've been reading the bulletin #292 and was blown away by the bear shots that you have posted. They are soooo amazing that I feel like I should join you some day to learn and do such stuff. Congratulations !!

http://www.birdsasart.com/248/RJ%20CoastalBrownBear_1.jpg

http://www.birdsasart.com/248/RJ%20CoastalBrownBear_3.jpg