African Elephant

[Nancy Bell]

I photographed this Elephant in the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania this past April. It's an amazing experience to have these huge elephants casually lumber past the vehicle. I envy those of you who live in Africa and can visit these areas frequently!

Canon 20D, Canon 70-200 f2.8 @ 70mm, 1/320, f5, ISO 400.

For PP I used mostly curves on the entire image and then selectively on the BG and the elephant. I also added some canvas on the left, including the tip of the ear. But I had no other similar photo to add the sliver needed on the elephant on the right. Comments and critiques most welcome.

[Ken Watkins]

This is big tusker, you do not see many like this.

It is a bit too tight in the frame for my taste, I suppose this proves you nead a wide angle for an up close elephant.:D

[Harshad Barve]

Can't wait to be there in crater :):):)

If Mine I may crop tight , big tusker he is , VWD
TFS

[Hilary Hann]

Certainly has a magnificent set of tusks, lets hope he keeps them!

Well done on adding the canvas, very hard to reclaim your image when you have no space. I do feel that the elephant could do with some extra depth to it by adding some contrast and extra black and it appears to have a slight colour cast. I think you can extract more impact from this handsome creature with a little more work. He perhaps could use some more USM as well.

The other option is to do what Harshad suggests and experiment with some closer crops.

[Ignacio Yufera]

An impressive tusker. IMO the tight factor isn't that important, in fact I find it emphasizes the size of the animal. I agree with adding a little more contrast and blacks, and maybe saturate the green grass a little for punch.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Nancy You did make an excellent image and PS work not bad !! Did you get a chance on going tighter? Like it a lot !!

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I will add more contrast and try an even tighter crop. Alfred, do you mean did the elephant come any closer? Most certainly! He walked right behind the vehicle and I'm sure some up of us just naturally ducked! I did get even closer shots. In fact once we had elephants so close that they literally brushed against the vehicle! I so wanted to reach my hand out and touch one!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Nancy, Too tight left, right, and bottom. A vertical pano crop would be better if still a bit tight on the bottom.... Impressive creature and sharp.