Reassurance

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Elephas maximus - Asiatic elephant. This image is from Bandipur Tiger Reserve in India.

I was told that an elephant had fallen into a ditch and had died a few days back. So these elephants were sensitive. They had small calves as well. So they were very nervous at the sight of a forest department bus which went very close to them. They were using their trunks to reassure themselves and had formed an arc around the calves. My jeep driver was very nervous and was not willing to switch off the engine. Hence I had to use a higher shutter speed.

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 24-105 f4 L IS, ISO 800, f4.5, 1/640, full frame. Subject distance 11.90 meters. Handheld.

Look forward to your comments and critiques.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Robert Amoruso]

Sabyasach,

I very much like the symmetry of this image and suggest the following to accentuate that.

1) Crop the trees on right as they distract. Cropped from top and a bit from left to make the elephants right in the center.
2) Local contrast enhancement on BG copy using USM at 20/50/0 to bring out more detail on the elephants.
3) Shadow/Highlight to open up the shadows.


Though I did not do it, a curves adjustment to lighten the image using Lighten preset in PS under the curves adjustment layer.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sabya, I like how the two parents have formed their trunks over the youngster. I dont mind your OP, as Roberts crop seems too tight for such large animals. However, I do like his pp work to bring out the detail.