Places to go.....

[Betsie Storm]

Harshad's jackal post of yesterday reminded me of this image, captured Dec 2008 in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It was late afternoon and this guy (?) was purposefully on the way; this was the best of 3 shots. Slight crop, some levels & sharpening; I left the branch in the front of his face in after some unsuccessful attempts to take it out and still maintain a natural look. (More practising Artie's "divide & conquer" technique required, I know:)). I am very fond of watching jackals going about their business. All c & c welcome.


Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, Lens 100-400 f/5.6 IS
Date/Time: 2008:12:24 19:08:41
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Av
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 800
Focal length: 400mm

[Harshad Barve]

beautiful image and lovely lighting
I too tried to clone for some time , but IMHO , better to keep that branch as it is
TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Betsie, I like the golden afternoon light, and the jackal looks pretty relaxed looking at his posture and ears. Good to see the raised paw, shows movement nicely. Well captured.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Lovely lighting in this capture Betsie and great timing. The raised paw adds greatly to this image. Many thanks for sharing.

[David Fletcher]

Wonderful late afternoon light on this Betsie. Hope you don't mind, but I did some work on your shot as felt deserving of some TLC. Due to the file size, I've had to make some compromises as the blending/masking has meant sacrificing some patches I might normally retain. Method was: Press Q for quick mask:> press B for brush and painted over an area I felt was worth dragging over the branch. > press Q to exit Quick Mask. >inverse>new layer via copy>press move tool and move over branch. (doesn't matter about overlapping snout>press E for erasure>set opacity to 50% and bring back snout by erasing. Reset opacity. Flatten. Minor cloning to tidy up. (I use Apple Macs... different with PC)

Made selection on bg and put NR filter on it. Helps Jackal pop. Quick selection tool on Jackal and sharpened with Smart Sharpen 60% 0.6 with Blend mode on Luminosity. Flattened. Hope it is of help.

[Steve Canuel]

I like the light on this. He looks a little uneasy, predators in the area? IMO, David's repost is excellent, maintains all the important aspects of your original, and looks very natural.

[Betsie Storm]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.
David, a special thanks for taking the time to rework the image and listing down the method- I kind of know about the QM removal technique:o, but will practise it properly so that it stays in the brain! (Generally I just avoid working up shots with too many interfering elements:)).

[David Fletcher]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.
David, a special thanks for taking the time to rework the image and listing down the method- I kind of know about the QM removal technique:o, but will practise it properly so that it stays in the brain! (Generally I just avoid working up shots with too many interfering elements:)).

Pleased to offer help Betsie. If we get any information that helps us all, and rescues minor glitches, teaches us more, improves our knowledge base, then it is time well spent. (I'm not a fan of over working shots too, but the practicalities sometimes mean it's worth it). Have a look at Artie's APTATS and ABP II, as there is a host of really useful info available. Enjoying your shots, and thanks for sharing your visions. :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

love the light here Betsie and Dave's repost shows what can be done. I think the method does work differently on PCs since I can get to Quick Mask and circle the area but the moment I quit QM mode I cannot work with the selection since it tells me my selection is empty. :(

[DanWalters]

Like the warm light and the highlight in the eye. I also like how you left room in front of the subject.

[Betsie Storm]

To add to Dave's technique post above, for Windows the method is decribed in APTATS (refer Artie's website if not familiar). I really should have recalled it, Dave, I practised it just the other day....:o:eek:

For Windows: Q to enter quick mask, B to get brush, set to hardness 0, paint over a piece of BG suitable to replace offending branch, exit quick mask with Q, now marching ants show selection, invert selection with Ctrl-Shift-I, with Ctrl-J paste the selection on a new layer- marching ants disappear (have to remember where the selection is:)). Get move tool with V, drag selected BG piece over offending branch & bits you still want, select Eraser with E, change opacity, erase wanted portions back, merge with Ctrl-E, flatten.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Betsie - that'll help :)