Bison tracks

[Jerry van Dijk]

I'm reposting this after losing the thread in the recent crash. I haven't seen any posts restored yet, so I fear the worst....
I went on an excursion to spot the Wisent (or European Bison, Bison bonasus), which have been reintroduced into the Netherlands a few years ago. We were not allowed to get close enough for nice pictures of the animals themselves, but my eye was caught by the leading line of bison tracks sloping up this sand dune. I chose a B/W HDR approach to bring out the tracks and all other nice structures in the sand.
The Wisent was hunted to extinction in Europe, but was reintroduced into the wild from a breeding program with 12 remaining animals in zoos around Europe. The most famous place for the Wisent is without a doubt Bialowieza primeval forest in Eastern Poland. A small herd of 6 animals were introduced from a breeding program in Poland in the Dutch dunes and have succesfully reproduced to a considerable herd of around 20 animals. For some great pictures of the animals, see the website of BPN member Jasper Doest, who made a documentary of the Dutch Wisent for National Geographic: http://www.doest-photography.com/section428845_360073.html

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 16-85 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR @ 16mm, handheld, ISO-250, f/9, 1/125 sec, EV +1. 1 stop bracket of 3 images in burst mode.
Blended and tonemapped in Photomatix Pro, CS5 (cropped, sharpened, burning of some highlights).

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like the idea here Jerry...but feel there's no real point of interest in the image and the impact of what you wanted to achieve might be lost due to the "sparse" tonal range you induced. I like the textures in the sand, though it's not easily discernible what the footprints are without your explanation. Maybe adding some contrast and some selective dodging/burning would add more to what you wanted to convey here? :e3

[Hilary Hann]

Jerry, this is so almost there, but I have to agree with Morkel that it just needs a little more 'something'. Perhaps getting a bit more drama in the sky and some burning/dodging as Morkel suggests could lift it a little more and if only you had managed just one animal … then it would have rocked. Despite that, I do like the flow of the sand dunes so perhaps there is more that can come out of this still. I really like your story behind the image and together they do make interesting viewing.

[Brendan Dozier]

This has a nice desloate feel, Jerry, and the tracks and patterns add interest. I agree about it needing some more impact and drama, and using some levels & curves should make it stronger.

[Robert Amoruso]

I agree that the image is too flat thus lacing depth needed for a B&W to have impact for such a scene. I do like the patterns in the sand but feel the tracks are too few to be a significant contributor to the composition. Not such if a different view would have positioned the leading lines of the sand patterns better, but I do like how it is presented here.

I am not bother by a lack of focal point. Images relying on form, pattern, contrasts, colors, etc. do not necessarily require a strong focal point.

Going back to the start, work to lower the highlights as they are clipped in the sky and on the sand. That makes my repost a bit garish but I think you will get the idea of how the contrast can be increased. In the repost I used Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Tonal Contrast setting at the presets and tweaked them a small amount.

Lacking the Nik software, you can try local contrast enhancement as well as curve adjustments to increase contrast.

I hope you will post a new version.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for responding! I see how even more contrast further emphasizes the patterns in the sand (which actually are the main attraction for me, not so much the tracks, I consider them a nice extra). I will work on this further, but was unable to prevent the clipping of the highlights in Photomatix. I even cut some of the sky to get rid of some fairly large clipped highlights. I'm fairly new to the program, so I will fiddle with it a little more.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Here's a completely reworked version. I was able to get rid of the highlights in the sky and sand by adjustments in the tonemapping combined with local adjustment brush in ACR to reduce exposure, so I was now able to include more of the dramatic sky, which improves the composition IMO. I also applied a gradient filter with reduced exposure and contrast and increased clarity to the sky to accentuate it. To increase (local) contrast I used the clarity slider in ACR and a levels adjustment. I then applied a curves adjustment to bring up the shadows a bit. I removed a very smal jet trail ($%#@!!) that was cropped out in the first version. Tell me what you think!

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice job on the repost, Jerry. The added contrast and tonal adjustment really help to bring out the details. Like Robert's too, his seems to have a bit more sharpness, but maybe a sharpness somewhere inbetween would work best?

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Brendan, the image seems to have lost some sharpness in the uploading process. Both the original and the small Save for web version are tack sharp on my computer. Don't know what's going on there. I like Roberts version too, because it is a bit lighter, but I wasn't able to lighten up the blacks without clipping highlights and losing contrast.

[Valerio Tarone]

Hi Jerry I've read all previous. I have to agree, you added more tonal adjustment and contrast. I would like to see the bisons and I have a she friend in Holland, a kind birdwatcher in Raalte. Can you tell me where exactly they are? I'll also watch thDoest's link, of course. Thanks.

[Mario Moreno]

A nice image to start with but Jerry definitely made the difference so have to go with his suggestion

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for commenting! Valerio, the bisons are close to the city of Haarlem, which is about 150 km from Raalte. You can check out visiting information on http://www.wisenten.nl/wisenten-uk/home . Some of the bisons wear GPS collars, so you can see where they are in the area. Apperently, they are broken right now, but may be repaired in spring.

[Robert Amoruso]

Jerry,

I like your repost and the details on how you accomplished it in PS - always good learning for everyone when we state the processing steps.

A bit more sharpness for the JPG and your golden.