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Thread: Giraffe feast

  1. #1
    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Default Giraffe feast

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    This female lay threatening claims to an advancing male who wanted to crash the feasting party.
    Boosted contrast and blacks in CS5 to get a monochrome conversion I was happy with, works well in colour also but felt the patchwork on the giraffe suited a B&W better, interested to see what others think?

    D700 80-400VR AF-S f/8 1/160s ISO 800 @ 400mm.

    Ruaha NP- Tanzania

    C & C most welcome

    Cheers
    Marc


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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Marc - I think this is a really interesting image (in a good way) and the conversion makes it a bit more dramatic. I like the way you used the other lioness to frame the subject. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the brightness of the framing lioness and the grasses at the bottom so I used a luminosity mask to tone down the highlights in the grass and then dropped the exposure or the framing lioness by -.35 in a layer. This way the subject is the brightest part of the image. Just an alternative. WDYT?

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Very interesting image indeed. I think the OP is more dramatic because of the high contrast between the framing lion and the other. I love the intense eyes of the lying lion. Well done. Loi

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    Lovely b&w but a touch on the crunchy side which may be down to the sharpening.

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    I liked the immediate impact of this image but my reaction to the conversion was very similar to Rachel's in that I felt the framing lioness was a little too bright. Perhaps the OP is a little over sharpened or has a bit too much contrast, however because of that it does increase the impact so I'm not sure whether I'd change it too much. Sometimes you have to make the decision based on your RAW file.

    Bottom line is that I like the image a lot.

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    Forum Participant edwardselfe's Avatar
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    What a great image. Well composed and executed. I would smooth some of the graininess with NR - even if I'm sure it's not noise - and then you have a winner. I think this is competition stuff.
    Ed

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Marc - lovely framing and timing here, love how it's all animals in the texture (except the grass of course).
    I agree with Rachel and Hilary's calls for the reversal of lightness and making the gazing lioness the brighter one. But it does work as presented too!
    I would also try and perhaps convert using various filters to make the contrast between the 2 lions even more apparent?
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Appreciate the comments and methods of improvement, all good and taken on board, thanks everyone.


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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    Hi Marc, I like this very much. The reversal of lightness would be very interesting for this one! I like this a lot with the framing

    Ciao
    Anette

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    Terrific image Marc.
    I really liked the OP, then I saw Rachel's repost and spent a few minutes flicking between the two to decide if I thought it was an improvement.
    The shades in the RP are more even, but, for me, the OP has more impact. The lightness of the framing lioness really draws my eye to the lioness at the back and gives more impact to the marking of the giraffe.

  11. #11
    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Appreciate the comments Martin

    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Dunn View Post
    the OP has more impact. The lightness of the framing lioness really draws my eye to the lioness at the back and gives more impact to the marking of the giraffe.
    That was my intention, so agree with you on this.


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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Marc,
    great stuff as presented , so i am with you and Martin, tonal wise.
    Nice framing of the whole scene.
    Maybe losing a bit of the grass makes even more powerful.

    TFS Andreas

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    The famous giraffe killers of Ruaha!! Ever watched the documentary "Lion Battle Zone"?
    Excellent composition here, Marc
    I think your processing in the OP conveys what you intended for, and it works for me too!

    TFS

  14. #14
    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Thanks Shreyas.

    Quote Originally Posted by Shreyas Mantri View Post
    The famous giraffe killers of Ruaha!! Ever watched the documentary "Lion Battle Zone"?
    Excellent composition here, Marc
    I think your processing in the OP conveys what you intended for, and it works for me too!

    TFS
    Yes, indeed I have, in fact this giraffe kill was made just behind the back of camp of the film maker of that doco, Owen Prumm.
    A nice guy with a huge dedication to his craft, he was a good man to have as he followed the various lion prides in places only someone with a permit could go, and often kept in touch with our guide Festo for the duration of our 10 night stay.


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