Impala portrait
Just jumping in the new theme
Made some "creative treatments "with this fairly old image taken in SA somewhere , think it was in Hluhluwe.
Canon EOS 1D MK II
EF 500 IS L
Bean bag
F 5,0 / Iso 400 / 1/250 sec
Cropped for comp ; cloned out the back of another Impala from RHS just behind the back of the one in front .
Processed in PhotoNinja and PS CC ; used a Tritone preset in PS for this EFFECT.
Hope you like it, thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
Cheers Andreas
Hi Andreas - Beautiful impala portrait with excellent detail and sharpness. The toning works. There's an area just above the back where the bg doesn't look as smooth as the rest of the bg. Presumably, this is where you cloned out the other impala. A little more blending there should do the trick. There's also a white dot above the impala's nose that caught my eye.
TFS,
Rachel
Thanks Rachel, oops did not see the things you have seen, what also bothers me is the posterization in the BG, think this comes from downsampling. And yes you are right about the cloning ,it went worse when i did the toning job.
Just blurred the area slightly and removed the spot.
Cheers Andreas
Andreas, how could you visit Hluhluwe and not visit us?
I have a lot to learn from you in terms of B/W, duotone, tritone, etc...Your "creative treatments" work for me, I also like the detail and textures on this impala, just wondering where in Hluhluwe you managed to get this clean BG? You must see the Park now after some rains, the grass is so tall that all you see is Impala ears, if you're lucky!
Looking forward to more conversions from you,
Kind regards,
Gabriela Plesea
Thanks Gabriela you should more listen to others than to me, i am a rookie myself in all this stuff , only difference is, i will post it regardless being a rookie ……..
Sorry i can`t tell you exactly where in Hluhluwe the shot was taken, but definitely there .Shot was taken in Sept , maybe it was a good time for low grass
BTW - i knocked on so many doors in that area , but nobody opened . The reason could have been , i travelled with an old Army Land Rover with a german number plate and left handed driving. Could that have been the reason you did not let me in……….
, i was starving …………...
Thanks again , Andreas
A very nice shot, and well suited to a B&W conversion. The pose works well for me, and you've done a good job with the processing. The only slight improvement I can think of would be a subtle brightening around the eye just to add a bit of 'life' to it.
Overall though I like it
Lovely mood here Andreas, and I like the overall toning you went for - for me it's just a tad too dark, opening up the midtones a bit should go a long way here.
Pity about the nearest ear being OOF but with a subject this close and a telephoto lens it's always a comprimise between DOF and getting that smooth creamy BG at wide open apertures.
Hi Andreas, I like the almost vertical/right angle of the head & the 'look back' and having the slope of the back gives for me, an interesting composition. Having a 'red' to the tone, well that is perhaps a personal preference. The RP looks a little better, but I feel the choice in the combination of the colours has flattened some of the mid tone areas and overall it lacks the detail, clarity & sharpness compared to previous images. I think you have to be quite careful in the colour choice, especially if this is a quad, tri or duotone and if so, then the Curve setting need to be adjusted to suit, rather than using the presets. Recovering a bit more mid tone and some selective sharpening does seem to coax out a bit more sharpness & clarity.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Thanks Mike , Morkel and Steve for your thoughts and suggestions .
I thought and did something , wonder if this fits your feelings , gives a slightly different mood with opened mid tones and some sharpening added.I backed off on sharpening in OP .
Steve as per intro i used a tritone preset , but tweaked the curves of each color , so not just preset and done , what you eventually thought i have done, after the toning i tweaked the image further with D&B , hope that clarifies my edits.
I actually did not add any straight red to the toning , it is a combination of black /warm grey/ and warm brown . But hey , i like it.
So here is a second RP , WDYT ?
Cheers Andreas
Thanks for the additional info, it helps and I'm glad you tweaked the curves. I think it's the warm brown that is coming through that give the red appearance.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Steve i do find it difficult to find the balance with all these curves and options in that menu, and stepping back is not as easy as with "normal" curves , so a lot of trial and error to find something suiting my needs .But interesting to play with.
It is often very hard Andreas, as the slightest change can make a big/huge difference. IMHO there are only a few colours that really work, but that is just my take. Also, colours are personal choice and so there is no right or wrong answer at times, although sometime it just doesn't work, so if I don't like a colour that's me.
I also don't like the fact that when you convert, you have to use an 8bit file, not 16, so again, you are throwing away great/valuable image info.
I will post something in due course, but you need to read the intro which hopefully will explain where I am going with the image.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Agree Steve - 8bit is not ideal .- any other solution in the your pipe ? and still can do tritone ?
And if like a color , that is just me
Will wait excited to see what you come up with……..
I have the next in my Pipe , will post later , different subject , different colors ………. but the same hard contrast
Last edited by Andreas Liedmann; 04-04-2014 at 11:23 AM.
Hi Andreas
Like the last girl posted the most, opening up the eye really worked.
Being a complete novice with B&W, looking @ comments and suggestions--learning!!
BTW, was driving a Landy myself at the time- you know the camaraderie between Landy owners!
Andre
Andreas, you never knocked on my door... if you did, you would have noticed the "german style" neat garden, etc. etc.etc...
When did you visit Hluhluwe? I used to do specialised tours few years ago, just once a year, for vets and people studying animal behaviour. A dear friend from the UK just loaded up recently a recording he did in 2003 during one of our trips, here's the link: http://bit.ly/1kb9qFQ The film was made in September 2003, we had a very dry winter here and not the best sightings, yet a fun trip altogether. Easy to recognise me, I have short dark hair and a permanent smile on my face
Have a great weekend and start packing, bud! October is just around the corner...
Gabriela Plesea
That 2nd edit certainly works for me - excellent work
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