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Thread: Baobab dawn patrol

  1. #1
    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Default Baobab dawn patrol

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    The Ruaha NP is home to huge areas of baobab forest , they make for dramatic landscapes, especially when you have the local pride male "grumpy" taking a dwan patrol through them.
    Some of these majestic trees have been aged at over 2500 years! Unfortunatley some suffer horrendous scaring from the local ele herds that love to strip their soft bark.

    Nikon D700 80-400 AF-S f/6.3 ISO1600 1/640s@80mm. cropped to pano.

    RuahaNP- Tanzania. OCT 2014

    C & C most welcome.

    Cheers
    Marc


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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Love the setting here!! Makes me want to get there even more...
    Perhaps a tad too much cyan/blue coming through??
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Morkel Erasmus View Post
    Love the setting here!! Makes me want to get there even more...
    Perhaps a tad too much cyan/blue coming through??
    Thanks Morkel, I had actually reduced down the cyan/blue quite a lot already, yet wanted to retain a touch of cool as this was indeed early morning, reducing further gave less appeal for me.
    .....How did I know you'd try and pick me up on that


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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Marc - I'm with Morkel on this one and feel it still has too much blue/cyan or maybe it's just a bit too saturated overall. There's some fringing in the greens in the midsection too. It's a nice scene and gives you a sense of the immensity.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    This is a beautiful environmental scene. I love all the baobab trees and the clouds in the sky. We call this type of cloud formation "a mackerel sky" here in Nova Scotia and it reminds me of the fisherman's saying " mackerel sky, never 24 hours dry". I digress...
    I like the blues but agree that reducing them a tiny bit more would improve an already stunning panorama.
    I would have liked for you to swing your camera a bit more to the right. That would have cropped out the half tree on the left and provided more space for the lion to walk into. A minor nit...
    Gail

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    Forum Participant edwardselfe's Avatar
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    Great vision you had to take this shot. I really like it. I would back off on the clarity in the background as i think that's what's making the branches of the baobabs look a little oversharpened (with halos around them) and I'd add +5 to the WB to take it away from the cyan cast and add some warmth. Love the lion's placement in the image.
    good job.
    Ed

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Thanks Gail
    Quote Originally Posted by gail bisson View Post
    I would have liked for you to swing your camera a bit more to the right. That would have cropped out the half tree on the left and provided more space for the lion to walk into. A minor nit...
    Gail
    Would have liked a tad more walk in room as well (but conscience of not having the lion too central), however had to crop out our vehicle's front guard, which was coming into play on that RHS.
    Last edited by Marc Mol; 12-09-2013 at 07:37 AM.


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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Thanks Ed

    Quote Originally Posted by edwardselfe View Post
    I would back off on the clarity in the background as i think that's what's making the branches of the baobabs look a little oversharpened (with halos around them) and I'd add +5 to the WB to take it away from the cyan cast and add some warmth. Love the lion's placement in the image.
    good job.
    Ed
    No sharpening applied at all to this image Ed, I did use a small amount of Nik detail @ 15%, not seeing much evidence of halos on any of my 3 cal monitors as particularly conscience of this.
    I'm happy with the very slight blue in the overall scene as this was my intention to replicate the cool still morning air. I did try warming the colour, but just didn't do it justice IMO.


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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    Hi Marc,

    very nice scene here. Like it with all those Baobab tree and the light. About the color, a tad less"blue". I took it in PS and reduced the blue to -20 - -30. Give it a try, maybe you like it.

    Have a great evening

    Ciao
    Anette

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Thanks Anette
    Quote Originally Posted by Anette Mossbacher View Post
    About the color, a tad less"blue". I took it in PS and reduced the blue to -20 - -30. Give it a try, maybe you like it.
    I dabbled with the colour/temp/WB for quite a while on this, yes including reducing the blue but settled on my OP and liked it as is. Just my personal preference.


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    Hi Marc,

    i like the overall scene. Sole lion in nice scenery. The interesting cloudly sky is a bonus.
    Even if the colors have been like displayed, somehow they are not appealing to me (especially the hills in the back). It somehow looks unreal.

    BR
    Markus

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Marc, I really like the scene, having the Lion small within the environment works extremely well and different to the lionscapes we normally see. However, and you know there's often a however, I totally agree with the above comments about the Blue & Green cast coming through within the image, balancing it a little more will still achieve the look & feel you want and give the image a cleaner look. Reseting the whites to say 247 and the shadows to around 8 helps ease the shadows a little likewise the highlights. The sky is still dramatic, but the light & colours still reflect the time of day.

    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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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Marc,
    great lion scape in a really nice setting, like the comp with lion small in the frame, another vote on the already suggested coloration of the blue/green , but it is yours.
    Love the sky , but would go even further with more drama .

    TFS Andreas

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    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    Nice animal scape Marc. The distant mountains look a touch too blue but everything else looks okay. Having shot a lot of shaded mountains myself I find I often have to balance what the camera saw with what I want to show. Could maybe just reduce the cyan in the middle bit of mountains, masking away the effect on the sky, trees, and ground?

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