A young Bushbuck proves to be extremely attractive to flies in Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda, 26th June 2012
EOS 1D MkIV
500mm F4 hand-held
F8, ISO 800, 1/640
A young Bushbuck proves to be extremely attractive to flies in Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda, 26th June 2012
EOS 1D MkIV
500mm F4 hand-held
F8, ISO 800, 1/640
Ken,
I like the composition of the head and body with the body framed into the lower right quadrant. I would have preferred more room on top for the antlers.
I reposted a version which I first (in PSCS5) used a shadow/highlight correction to lighten the shadows in the entire image (shadow settings amount = 80% and Tonal Width = 75%). I did this on a BG copy. Created layer mask on this copy, filled it with black and painted white at the eyes, ears and bottom of antlers.
I cropped from the left which accomplishes two things - gets rid of a dark grass stalk LL and centralizes the animals head in the frame, correcting the unbalanced look in the OP.
Flies are a nice extra and I am sure what attracted you to create this image. The buck cooperated nicely with a photogenic pose.
Love the eye contact and pose. The flies are a great bonus and add to this fine image.
Ken - those flies look uncomfortable. Nice dof and Robert's tweaks have improved an already nice image.
TFS,
Rachel
Robert,
I see where you are coming from but currently I am in a "muted" colours mode. I think I have been influenced by Chas (if only I had his images)
It was dull and overcast most of the time we were in Lake Mburo.
I am most pleased that people are enjoying the flies.
Nice portrait Ken. I too like the flies here.
Robert's repost has improved it immensely. I would have done the same had he not posed one
I fail to see the relevance here. To my eyes the "colours" look the same in the 2 posts (in fact colours don't look muted in OP or repost, quite vibrant), it's the shadow detail and facial luminosity that have been improved ...and if I may be honest none of Chas' images need any shadow detail adjustment as he posts them after working up the image to represent accurate but detailed hightlights and shadows, or he's exposed them correctly in-the-field (IMHO of course).
We all wish we had his images*SIGH*
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 08-26-2012 at 04:30 PM.
Morkel,
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and I have mine, I refuse to be drawn into another p*****g match.
Markus,
Thanks for your comment, may I ask which post you prefer?
Nice portrait, flies and all. Another handsome antelope, I like the lines in his horns. Repost does look slightly more vibrant in greens and reds of fur but only very slight. No problems with either version's color for me. Biggest difference I see is in the eyes (more definition on the inside corner) and the ears (darker areas show he needs to clean his ears). If you want to pin me down on an answer, take Robert's repost eyes and ears and put them on your OP.
Steve,
Thanks a lot for your comments, my main problem with the re-post was the increased redness in the fur which is not in my experience realistic, especially given the really dull light. As for the greens I toned them down as a result of comments on prior posts, the greens should certainly be more vibrant, we had plenty of rain.![]()
Certainly gets down to personal preference and what we're trying to portray in our images and the reposts we work of others (realism vs other idealized visions, etc.).
Steve,
I think you have hit the nail on the head here, I prefer realism myself. A fine example of which was posted here recently by Chas, his Leopard is in my experience the actual colours of a Leopard they are rarely as red or yellow as we often see unless it is caused by the light.
Robert,
Thanks for your explanation, I can only agree that colours sometimes change when saving for web on an original and re-worked image.
Does anybody know why?