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Thread: Buffalo feast

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    Default Buffalo feast

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    Mana Pools, in the evening. This young male was eating on the buffalo carcass. as he lifted his head the light just fell on his eye. the tongue was a lucky bonus I thought. I've processed this picture in LR4 and PS5. darkened the highlights between the trees behind the lion, and brightened the buffalo a bit for more detail. Any thoughts for improvement?

    Iso 1000
    f/5.6
    1/800
    252mm (70-200mm + 1.4 extender)
    Canon 1D mark IV

    Best wishes to you all!!!
    Carole


    Last edited by Peter Kes; 01-12-2013 at 09:24 AM.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Carole - the light on the face is great and so is the pose of the lion. I like the dark tones as well. Did you shoot this as a vertical? I feel like there is too much space above the lion. I wonder if it would have been possible to shoot this as a landscape with the entire buffalo. I might try opening up the shadows a tad and a round of NR on the bg.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Carole, is this working from an RGB file or sRGB file?

    I like the overall composition and placement, all I might do is crop a little off the top to remove the darker branch creeping in, about 6mm off. I would also look at the Levels histogram as I think there is more detail there which is crying to come out (as per attached), but watch the highlight on the side of the face.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Hi Carole,
    I like the detail and the light on the eye. The background is not ideal, but the forest is part of Mana Pools and under the circumstances you have done well. As Steve has mentioned, getting more detail from the darks and shadows is an option using luminosity masks and either curves or screen LBM's. One might then need to add contrast a wee bit.
    TFS and best wishes,
    Mark

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Mark, how does a luminosity mask help with shadows & darks? If you add more Contrast you are adding black back again?
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Hi Steve,
    What I was referring to was using luminosity masks to make a selection, say for instance you wanted to lighten just the darks in the image. You can then use the luminosity masks to mask just that part of the image to make the changes you want. Once selected you can then either use a curves adjustment layer to lighten just those aspects of the image or you can use the screen mode layer blending(screen) to lighten the selected parts of the image and using the opacity slider affect the changes you so desire. As it is in layers these changes are non destructive and when making these changes contrast can be affected and can again be changed by selecting that aspect of the image you want to select and make the changes as you see fit.
    http://www.hougaardmalan.com/blog/ad...t-application/. This link, a Hougaard Malan tut shows nicely what can be achieved using the full gambit of luminosity masks and changes to the various masks by using the LBM's, soft light for contrast, screen to lighten and multiply to darken. I hope this helps and answers the question Steve.
    In Carole's image for instance, you can select just the shadow aspects and then you don't have to worry about the highlights on the face and make the necessary changes without worrying about "blowing" the highlights.
    Best wishes,
    Mark.
    PS: There are some wonderful youtube videos done by confessionsofaphotoshopnerd that explains all about luminosity masks and the use thereof, a valuable tool in photoshop use and image manipulation and processing.
    Last edited by Mark Wiseman; 01-11-2013 at 02:57 PM.

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    Thanks Rachel. I shot this as a vertical, trying to include the trees, because it's such a typical sight in mana pools. I also shot it horizontally, but there were branches in front of the hind legs of the buffalo, so that didn't work well. I already cropped the trees a little and a little from the right. you are right about the shadows, it's a bit too dark. I think Steve did a better job...

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    Thanks Mark and Steve! it is actually from an sRGB file, I know, stupid, but changed my camera settings... that will never happen again...
    Mark, the new world of luminosity masks has just opened for me! will explore and try it out on a new image, thanks!

    Best wishes and thanks again for all the help!
    Carole

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Carole, I think the vertical (portrait) option is the best, as the content, subject, composition IMHO, all lean towards that. One simple tweak and you are there on this one, but as you know, the IQ will be lacking, however a valuable lesson learnt and you are set for the future now. Just make sure your whole workflow throughout it's progression is RGB or Pro, but this would increase your file size, so keep it to RGB.

    My only little bit of advice is, keep your workflow simple, avoid to much 3rd party stuff, otherwise you will be like a Rabbit caught in the headlights, not knowing which way to turn and going totally away from what you originally shot and how you saw the image. Explore and see what things can do, BUT understand more importantly, what they do and the effect they have. Once you know this, you can pick and choose what you need to use & apply, as so many people use things without knowing the full impact on the image and on the pixel and then they wonder why there image looks poor.

    Good luck.

    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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  11. #10
    Robert Amoruso
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    Carole,

    The RP by Steve enhances the look of the image well - light looks more natural to me.

    I understand the reason for the vertical crop but find the tangle of horizontal branches at the top distracting as it grabs my eye. With so my drama of the lion with the kill I do not see a good reason to include to much environment and suggest that a square crop of the lion and kill accentuates the center of interest of the image much better. Cropping from the top to form a square composition is my suggestion.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Lovely sighting here Carole, great repost by Steve (though I did like the darker, more ominous look of your OP too)...
    I like Robert's crop suggestion. As Mark said, the forest is part of Mana, but some parts of the forest are better (more photogenic) than others
    Morkel Erasmus

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    I prefer your OP, and the details are excellent. Love winter colors (I think) and the what seems to be characteristic trees in the BG for that area. I like the fact the Buff's head is square to the sensor too.... ongrats on your cover fro Africa Geographic!

  14. #13
    Roman Kurywczak
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    Hi Carole,
    Yeah.....the OP was a bit dark but it gave an ominous mood. So I am OK either way. I do think I would prefer the square crop as it would really focus on the buffalo and lion.....yet keep a bit of the environs and lose some of the distracting elements. A nice action shot for sure!

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