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Thread: Gerenuk Thinks He is A Mini Giraffe

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    Default Gerenuk Thinks He is A Mini Giraffe

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    Image taken just before sunrise.

    1DX
    500f4 II
    1/400
    F4
    ISO-800
    Handheld

    Bumped up exposure by 0.36EV in LR5
    Adjusted WB for more warmth and RAW conversion LR5
    in CS6
    Added Saturation to the sky
    Lumino mask 30%
    Levels, pull in the white at 220
    Curves to add a little bit of contrast
    Cropped some off the top, right, and bottom for comp.

    I followed Steve K's advice and did a very minimal PP here. Would liek your comments.

    Thank you

    Loi

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    Cool pose, very well captured Loi. A little more contrast in mid tones would be better. Excellent shot.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Loi, a species rarely posted here and one that is almost a gymnast in browsing.

    Caught in an ideal pose, illustrating just how agile these animals are. I think you did very well to get the head as clear as you did, a tricky image to capture, but you pulled it off. Perhaps as an alternative, you could go 16 x 9 vertical as it dovetails with the pose? I do however find the light grass stems bottom LHC rather distracting, so toning them down with a selective mask may help, albeit a tricky one to implement. Colour I will leave to others, but personally I would leave adding any more mid tone, you have the body form & structure defined nicely so I would leave as is, but perhaps a fraction more USM on the subject?

    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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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Loi - I somehow missed this one yesterday, sorry. Great to see a Gerenuk. I'm not sure if one has been posted in the time I've been a member. I think the less is more worked well here. I do wish for a little more room below and also think another round of USM, particularly on the body is in order.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Forum Participant edwardselfe's Avatar
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    This is great and you did nicely to show the eye at all. I would lift the exposure a little more, or boost the highlights, to give a bit more life to it. It's a bit flat. I also think the sharpening could help, but I wonder how sharp the original is at 500mm with 1/400s handheld. I use my 1D4 at ISO 800 as a standard - think the 1DX is probably fine at ISO 1600 and that would have given you a safer (just) SS for handheld.....

    Ed

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    Loi, Gerenuk are my favourite antelope so it is great to see one posted here in a classic gerenuk pose.
    The colours look very natural to me and the antelope is well defined. I do find the background a little bit intrusive. The light coloured grass behind the gerenuk's shoulders and the pale sky are both just a bit too bright for me.

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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    Hi Loi,

    very well done and pp, looks great to me. Would give it a try about Steve's crop suggestion. Never have seen that animal out there in the wild. Maybe some day.

    Have a great day

    Cia
    Anette

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    Lifetime Member Andre Pretorius's Avatar
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    Hi Loi

    A moment captured here I have never seen before. The Gerenuk seems to nibble very cautiously around those Acacia thorns!

    I too find the white grass tuffs in the FG and BG a bit distracting. A mask is the the correct way, but cumbersome, how about a D&B layer?

    Agree with USM.

    Andre
    Regards

    Andre.

    www.gappimages.com

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    Hi everyone, thank you for your comments.

    Steve, good idea on the 16:9 crop. It helps offset the Gerenuk. In this RP, I cropped slightly top and the the rHS for a 16:9. No more room at bottom and left.

    Ed, good idea regarding the exposure. Previously, I used Levels to adjust brightness by bringing int he whites from 255 to 220. By adding 0.2EV exposure, now the histogram occupies the entire 0 - 255 space.

    I also tried to tone down the highlights in the FG and BG, but decided to leave the highlights on the left side of the Gerenuk alone as it is a pretty cramped space and I wouln't be able to do it well.

    Increased UMS to 120/0.3/0 from 80/0.3/0. You were right, this image is not as sharp as I owuld like as I was struggling holding the AF on the Gerenuk head and not the BG. Higher SS/ISO would have helped. I had subsequent images that are a little bit sharper, but the Gerenuk had stopped eating and turned around to look at us. I prefer this natural behavior shot than one that is looking at us :)

    I'm happy with the image now. I worked on this image from time to time the past few months, but found it was too flat. This RP is looking better.

    Thank you for your time and comments as always.

    Loi

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    Love the pose... Gerenuk are very interesting animals. Only thing I'm not crazy about is the light sky on the top of the frame.....

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Love these quirky guys. Some good constructive builds given here already, Loi - and I like your RP.
    I wonder if it can still stand a slice off the RHS?
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Loi - for the highlights on the lhs try the burn tool in PS. Set the range to "highlights" and the percentage to 3 or 4 % and then just go over the area. You can adjust the size of the tool/brush with the bracket key. This should adjust just the highlights and leave everything else as is. No need to select or mask this way. Give it a try.

    Rachel

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    BPN Member Sandy Witvoet's Avatar
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    Not sure on the techs... but I love this. A bit less sky, perhaps... must have been wonderful to photograph!
    www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rachel Hollander View Post
    Hi Loi - for the highlights on the lhs try the burn tool in PS. Set the range to "highlights" and the percentage to 3 or 4 % and then just go over the area. You can adjust the size of the tool/brush with the bracket key. This should adjust just the highlights and leave everything else as is. No need to select or mask this way. Give it a try.

    Rachel
    Thanks Rachel, didn't know how to set the burn tool until you said here. I tried, but the resulting image looks a bit dreary, so decided to leave it alone. It was before sunrise in an overcast day, so difficult to make the sky more attractive. I could crop a little bit of, but I like to have a little bit of sky of as in the OP, not worth reposting though.

    Loi

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Loi - don't apply it to the whole image but just to the brighter highlights right around the body and to the left. Here's a rp where I took your last post and just did that.

    Rachel

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    Hi Rachel, sorry I mis-understood your sugegstion. I applied it to the sky and din't like it. Your RP works very well in toning down the highlights right next to the body. Thank you!!! Now I have 1 more tool to work with. Loi

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    You're welcome.

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    Fun behavior image. The face in the thorns just looks so painful.

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    Great behavioural image Loi and the feedback above has brought the image along nicely. Love the fur texture and the clear muscle definition.

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