Elephant

[Rachel Hollander]

We saw this lone bull on an overcast day in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve in South Africa. Another image I have revisited from my 2009 trip.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 210mm
1/400
f6.3
ISO 800
HH from a safari vehicle, slight s/h, selectively lightened the elephant, contrast boost and sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Overcast condition gave you good detail on the elephant, nice close-up Rachel. I normally never photograph skies in overcast conditions:w3 They normally looked washed out with no detail :cheers::cheers:

[Katie Rupp]

Eating thorns and all! I like the detail and especially the red coloration on the ear and forehead which I'm guessing came from a red-dirt bath?

[Harshad Barve]

Rachel

If mine I may go for VERY tight framing , excellent behavior shot with nice details
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Vivaldo, Katie and Harshad. Katie - I'm sure one of our wildlife experts can answer your question better than I can but in my experience many elephants have some pink pigmentation.


Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, happy with the crop and overall feel, but feel it's a tad too sharp on the Elephant (but that might be due to some noise coming through due to the ISO) and would certainly run some NR on the BG. If you were able to, I might try also to add some BG in on the hotspots of sky particularly towards the RHS only.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve. Here's a repost with the bright spots on the rhs cloned out, NR on the bg and without the last round of sharpening for the web. Please let me know if it addresses your points.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Nancy Bell]

I love the great angle on the ellie that makes it appear to be almost coming out of the frame! To magnify this effect I would crop about half the amount on the right side. Maybe this is what Harshad was suggesting.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Nancy for commenting and for the suggestion. I'll take a look at the suggested crop.

Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Your repost works for me Rachel. Texture of the ele shows well and I like the overall color tone of this. Doesn't look like a fun meal to eat :eek:

[Stu Bowie]

Great repost Rachel, and the overcast conditions certainly has brought out the Ele's hide. Well captured.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve and Stuart

[Morkel Erasmus]

Great detail as mentioned Rachel...is that rain falling in the background?? :2

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - this one is mine, not Hilary's :w3. I can't remember if there was some drizzle that morning or not (it's 2 years ago). Sorry.

Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Oops! my bad, comes from commenting too late at night...:e3 apologies, corrected...:w3