A Free Ride

[Loi Nguyen]

I was wondering whether this image should be posted here or in the Avian Forum :), but decided here is best.

5D3
70-300L f4-5.6 @ 120mm
1/800
f11
ISO-800
Handheld

RAW conversion in DPP, then imported to CS6
Overcast day, original image from camera looked pretty dull, so I gave it the below treatment

Cooling filter to the sky
Saturation to the distant hill
Warming filter to the elephant
Selective adjusted Levels to the elephant 5 black, 220 white, except for the tusk
Lightened up the area around the eye with Curves
Added more contrast to the entire image with Curves
UMS elephant at 60/0.3/0 - (UMS 120/0.3/0 looked oversharpened)

Hope the above PP moves this image in the right direction.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - A fun image. It seems a little dark and too yellow to me. The warming filter may be the culprit here because it doesn't match the overcast conditions. I would drop the yellows overall slightly and then more so selectively on the elephant. I would also drop the reds in the whole image slightly I would also open up the midtones on the elephant a bit by moving the middle slider in levels to the left to taste but about 1.10. Finally, you've got some selection issues as posted noticeable by the tail, trunk and left rear leg. I think it is an image worth reprocessing as the sharpness and detail is there.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, It was an awful post now that I looked at it again. Didn't look that bad in CS6, but here in the browser, the colors look awful. I have reworked the image, but t still looks dark and flat and will need more work. Thank you for your comments. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, I love this, it floats my boat because you have a sight that is both interesting and a little comical. I will leave it with rachel on the techs side as I'm away, but just quickly looking at it I might try and get some more tone back in that BKG, you have it, you just need to pull it out. It will also help to show off the Egret more.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

I will never tire of seeing images of this amazing tusker.
Some good advice given above - I took the liberty of a repost.
The steps included a cooling filter, blending a darker layer of sky back into the image, tonal contrast on the elephant, bringing up midtone luminosity in the bottom half.
I worked quickly and sloppily so may have introduced some artifacts - just to give you an idea.

[Markus Jais]

Wonderful elephant shot. Impressive creature, amazing tusks. I like the walking pose and the overall composition.

The heron is a fantastic bonus.

Markus

[Loi Nguyen]

Rachel, Steve, and Morkel, your guidance is absolutely valuable. I have tried several versions, this one is the one I like the best. It does not quite have the vibrance of Morkel's version, but it is moving in the right direction I think. Loi

[Shreyas Mantri]

Nice fun image, Loi! Your repost looks ok but to my eyes still shows a hint of extra warmth and the egret looks a little blown off IMO, which you may wanna burn off a bit!?
TFS

[Jamie Douglas]

Well done Loi. Nice image enhanced with subtle yet effective PP work. Morkel made some good points in the RP with applying the cooling filter and working on the sky to extract more detail.

[Anette Mossbacher]

What a nice elephant Loi. Love the image, is quite fun to see. As well such an elephant with this huge tusks. I agree that your RP still looks a tad to warm, but otherwise very nice done

Have a great day

Ciao

Anette