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Thread: I miss the rains...

  1. #1
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Default I miss the rains...

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    ...down in Africa...or something like that.

    A scene from our first afternoon in the Mara Triangle. We had 3 big bulls ambling towards us and kept changing our position to place them against the nice stormy sky in the background at last light. I was amazed at how much I could pull from a single exposure with the D800 to develop this photo to my final vision. I will add the colour version as well as the out-of-camera version here in the thread too for those who are interested.

    I metered and exposed for the elephants, causing the sky to be washed out (yet not clipped). It was a stormy sky, so I double-processed the RAW file, pulling the exposure down about 2 stops and blended that sky back into the image. The final touch was the monochrome conversion...done in Silver Efex and further enhanced with dodging and burning in CS5.

    All comments, critique and suggestions welcome!

    Techs:
    Nikon D800
    Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 70mm
    f5.6 | 1/125 SS | ISO-1600
    Morkel Erasmus

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Colour version...
    I didn't add any blue to the sky, it came out naturally when darkened.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    BPN Member Douglas Bolt's Avatar
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    The original color ver is nice, but your conversion takes it up a couple of levels. Like it a lot!
    Douglas Bolt
    DougBoltPhotography.com

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    And here is the out-of-camera version, no adjustments made and exported directly from Lightroom.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    Hi Morkel,

    very nice conversion. Of course I took your color version over and played around. I might would lighten up the eles a bit more that they come out of the image more.
    Overall I like it a lot

    Have a nice evening


    Ciao Anette

    PS Did you get my PM I have sent you 3-4 weeks ago, about the lion brothers and waterholes?

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    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    Hey Morkel,
    I like seeing the expanse of the habitat you've included and the stormy skies add some drama. The blacks look a little too strong on this one for me, especially the cloud on the left, but interestingly it doesn't bother me when I browser crop out the lighter clouds up top.

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    Morkel, the B&W version is stunning! It has an almost 3D effect to it! Though the color version is nice, my fave is the OP. Your PP is amazing!! And shows the power of the D800 files, & what can be achieved with it. TFS.
    sanjeev

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    Wow, Morkel, this is not only a stunning image, but it is also a great education tool for all of us here. Another vote for the B&W version. the tonality of that image is just simply amazing. You can see the elephants so well, yet there are so much details in the sky from the dark cloud to the bright bit. Well done! Loi

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    Forum Participant edwardselfe's Avatar
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    Yikes - astonishing what you can recover from that file. Good work.
    Ed

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    Lifetime Member Andre Pretorius's Avatar
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    Very,very well done!!!
    Regards

    Andre.

    www.gappimages.com

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    I really enjoy the B&W version, great work from you processing this image. Love the dark and dark ellies pop very nicely, good work.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Hi Morkel

    Brilliant B/W and I would personally not lighten up the ellies one bit-I love this image as is. No loss of detail whatsoever, on the contrary. There's a mood to this image, a gloominess pertaining to the storm in the background. Hmmm, this would make a beautiful print, a large print! A work of genius and I love it-congratulations Morkel!!!

    Warmest regards
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hi Morkel. I love the B&W... beautifully moody scene. My only suggestion would be to remove the little noise/graininess (I think its noise) in the upper LH corner in the base of the clouds. Not a biggie for me but everything else is so smooth and crisp...The D800 is having me think i should swap sides..

    DON

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  24. #14
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Thanks everyone for your kind feedback.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Morkel - definitely the b&w for me. Great moody image. I might have preferred shifting for a bit more room to the left for the elephants to move into and less to the rhs in the field but would not want to have altered the head on view of the ele on the right.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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  27. #16
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Morkel, I'm with Rachel here, a tad more room to the LHS/going B/W has more 'drama', but overall a very nice shot, good to see double processing being used.

    I would remove the black spec, centre left about an inch down from the top trim.

    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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    Love the original post in B&W Morkel. What a difference to the image direct out of the camera!

    TFS

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    Hi Morkel - I think your field and PP work is exceptional. The B&W really squeezes out an enormous amount of detail but I like the colour version too. I personally quite like the composition with the eles moving out of frame in the direction they are moving. Super stuff

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    great comp & PP work. the color version for me anytime.

  31. #20
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Thanks a lot, friends...
    Morkel Erasmus

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