Boys playing

Hi all ,
a next contribution to this months theme from my side .
I already posted a full color version and a B/W of this sequence in the past of this two big boys play fighting in Etosha .
So wonder what you folks think of this .

Processed in DPP and PS CC ; cropped for comp and used two film presets of Exposure 6 by Alien Skin soft at low percentage . some more tonal adjustments made with traditional curves and TK masks .

Canon 1D MK III
EF 70- 200 IS L 2,8 at 115 mm

F 8 ; Iso 640 ; 1/400 sec ; man exposure

Hope you like it , all C&C are welcome

Thanks for watching and commenting to my previous posting

Cheers Andreas

Hi Andreas - The bright dust of Etosha lends itself well to high key images and this one works. Great action and you still retained detail in the eles. I like the way the eles fill the frame from side to side too.

TFS,
Rachel

Hi Andreas,

This is a great action photo of these magnificent species. The dust adds to the drama and you have done well to ensure the sun in their eyes.

I would try to reduce the exposure as the image is a bit bright to my taste.

Regards Steen :S3:

Hi Andreas, I like the interaction and the way the trunk is entwined and the size of subjects within frame. The overall look & feel I personally find is more 'oldie worldly' probably due to the colour and lighter areas.

TFS
Steve

Thanks Rachel , Steen and Steve for your comments , as always much appreciated .

Steen - that was exactly what i wanted , at least i had a "high key image in my mind to participate to this month theme and not a plain straight forward "well exposed with nice deep tonality " , so the image had to be somehow overall light in the tones .

Steve as i am close to be as old as you :bg3:, i thought i went back in time , going old school , just found some images in a box from my grandpa :t3they looked like this !! LOL , LOL.

Seriously the original was already quite light because of my way of shooting, if well controlled by me . So there is actually , besides a slight WB correction in DPP , no color tweaking made . All was tonally based and with pushing the tones even more to right i got that ´oldie worldly´touch :c3:.Now after reading your comment i think you are right with your observation , but this was not my initial thought of creating that old look . It just happened .No toning took place .

Cheers Andreas

For me, it is the dust rising from the interaction that makes this a wonderful image, as well as the perfect moment of capture with both ellies facing towards you and the one trunk wrapped over the other. High key is not the usual way we think of images but it does offer another way to present an image and allows one to see the possibilities.

Brilliant Andreas, thanks for the info.

Good to know it was shot more in that way as I originally thought there had been a lot of PP work to achieve the result, but sometimes we all do thinks without seeing it in the end result until it's highlighted. Still an interesting image. :w3

Steve for even more detail what i did :
Basic DPP correction WB ; exp - 0,33 ; lens correction ; NR set to 0; white point to 245 ; black point to 5.
PS : exposure 6 preset Velvia 100 F for a bit of OOOMPH at 50 %
exposure 6 preset overexpose at 30 % plus glow at low percentage
two selective curves layers ( masked with TK lumo masks ) for bringing back some tonal depth into 1/4 and 1/2 tones . painted in !!
Down sized and sharpened

Cheers Andreas

Yes, but how does it look printed? That will be the moment of truth, let me know next week, but again, thanks for the info. :wave:

Steve that will be a big question how this will look on a print , i hope i can answer that in the near future , not sure if i will be able to bring that onto paper that "easy " as i am able to bring it on screen . Remember i never really edited for that output device in a serious manner , so it will be a next challenge for me to get what i want to achieve or what i have ion my mind .
I guess i have to learn new stuff like different papers etc , i hope i will make quick progress with a little help from a local pro lab , just got conformation for next wednesday for a one to one lesson with the lab master himself from early morning till afternoon . I really hope i can take something with me , because he his a long time lab pro running his business for almost 20 years now and they print stuff not for the masses.

So keep fingers cross that i learn quickly , the earlier you can get positive news from my side or even a great print done by myself :5.

Cheers Andreas

Hello Andreas:wave:

Saw this earlier but I was at work and could not comment, also my work laptop is not reliable and I really wanted to see the colour on my big screen...I really like this Andreas, it reminds me of those old photographs displayed in the museum at the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi Game Reserve, images of wildlife taken many years ago:)

There's something quite charming about your "oldie worldly" as Steve describes it, and I like your processing as well as the way in which you chose to take the image (DOF in particular), you wisely decided which aspects to emphasise (the elephants fighting) and what to leave out (trees, grass, sky barely there).

What I like most about you Andreas, is that you are not shy to experiment... my thoughts right now go to Van Gogh who once said " ...instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I had before my eyes, I use colour more arbitrarily, in order to express myself forcibly..." He was talking about a portrait, but in your case, those colours, the brightness of the BG against the subjects' colour, all come together to create a special effect. Very arty and I love it, Mr B.E:cheers:

Warmest regards,

Thanks little sister for your kind wording , love it how you find a way to describe your feelings about all postings made by others and yourself :5.

Thanks again a big bunch , yours Andreas

I enjoy this sequence very much, and also that you treat each image differently to their strengths.
This works well, as Rachel said the Etosha dust and tones lends itself to this look easily. I too like the "oldie worldy" look & feel and the framing.
:5

(I also need to print more!)

Thanks Morkel for your viewing and comment , much appreciated

I like this one Andreas. No specifics, just has a nice look and feel for me.