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Thread: Elk in front of Fall colors

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    Default Elk in front of Fall colors

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    Shot this bull back in the fall in the Smokies. He had a large harem and was very protective. He charged a woman that got too close very soon after this shot. I tried to incorporate some fall colors in the BG. Not a big fan of the ear shadow and I lightened it up a bit. I don't get many opportunities to shoot many animals besides birds, so I'd love some feedback on what others think. All C&C welcome.

    Techs:
    Nikon D7000
    200-400 at 240mm HH
    f/4
    1/500
    ISO 400

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Lyle - He is certainly a majestic bull and gave you a very nice pose. I really like the comp as well. Unfortunately, IMHO the image is much too saturated particularly the greens and yellows and to a lesser extent the reds. Check out the sticky on luminosity masks and once you have the colors right, you may want to use one to tone down some of the highlights. It looks like your sharpness and detail are good, its all a matter of the colors for me.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Lyle, certainly this is very saturated and the colour does look very vibrant and in parts not that reflective of what was captured I feel.

    Firstly, do you use a calibrated monitor and if so when did you last calibrate it? Secondly, if possible could do a quick workflow of the steps you did in creating the image. My thinking is that it might be some steps taken that might not have been required or that certain sliders are moved a little too far. Finally I also suggest you post the RAW version, converted to sRGB without any thing being applied. I am hoping that in some way it may pinpoint the areas that need to be addressed and get the image to where it needs to be. This is unusual, however I think it's worth it.

    cheers
    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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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Hi Lyle, certainly this is very saturated and the colour does look very vibrant and in parts not that reflective of what was captured I feel.

    Firstly, do you use a calibrated monitor and if so when did you last calibrate it? Secondly, if possible could do a quick workflow of the steps you did in creating the image. My thinking is that it might be some steps taken that might not have been required or that certain sliders are moved a little too far. Finally I also suggest you post the RAW version, converted to sRGB without any thing being applied. I am hoping that in some way it may pinpoint the areas that need to be addressed and get the image to where it needs to be. This is unusual, however I think it's worth it.

    cheers
    Steve

    Thanks for the feedback. This is actually shot in JPG due to a long trip and storage concerns. This is straight out of camera except for a little sharpening after resizing. Haven't ponied up for a monitor calibration system. I use Apple's calibration system but it has been quite a while for that. I'm sure the jpg and non-calibrated system is where the discrepancy is coming in. This is a copy with saturation toned down. I'm just curious if it's the actual colors or the level of saturation that is way off? Thanks

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    Well, I accidentally grabbed the original unsharpened version. Don't think it matters for this circumstance.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Lyle - I think it's the colors as well as the saturation. Here's a rp in which I reduced the greens and also darkened them, reduced the yellows, reduced the blues and then applied a luminosity mask at 40%. I worked off of your repost but also did not do any sharpening to it.

    On the storage front, I carry portable hard drives to back up. A TB is very reasonable these days so I take a couple of those and download to at least 2 different devices using a netbook before reformating my CF cards. I know some people don't want to carry a laptop or netbook but carry many more cards so that they never run out of storage. Shooting in RAW just gives you much more opportunity to optimize your images and process them the way you want.

    Rachel

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Lyle, sadly I'm away so using the MacBook pro, so I can't really comment that much on colour now sadly.

    Are you using any pre 'picture style' setting for JPEG images? My advice would be to get your monitor calibrated and keep it calibrated on a very regular basis, in addition, unless you shoot RAW we need to find the reasons why your images are so saturated.

    Rachel has given some good advice, and shooting RAW is the way to go. I use my MBP solid state whenever I'm away to quickly edit, nothing huge, but then use 2 Lacie Rugged 250GB back-ups. They are light, affordable, small and excellent, as you always need to 'mirror' your back-ups in case one fails. Then when back you can quietly go through and do a better edit, before again backing up to two drives.

    cheers
    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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    Agree RAW is the only way to go. I have planned on getting a portable HD for a while, but haven't done it yet. Only been into photography for a couple years--I'm sure we're all aware how expensive everything is. I've been more worried about building up to better gear first. I was shooting a lot of bracketed landscape images right before I ran into this bull--thus the jpg, I was a little too excited to think about switching over to raw. I'm just lucky I turned the bracketing off! I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm sure at that time I had the Ken Rockwell settings with saturation and vividness turned up.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Lyle, we have all made errors in our time and will continue I am sure, as it's the only way to learn and to sharpen our thought process when shooting. I full appreciate that photography can deplete you of hard earned cash, but it's an enjoyable one that you can build on over the time.

    I still think that getting your screen calibrated ASAP is the way to go, otherwise all your hard earned shooting & processing will be for nothing. Once this is done you have the platform to build on, as the comments & feedback will be on a better footing.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Hi Lyle, besides the colour issue there seems to be a critical sharpness issue - the head seams slightly soft/OOF?
    Morkel Erasmus

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