Oh well, so I am now posting something I fear you might not like, but I dug deep and found some courage to show you one of my most "not ideal" images, just because its subject is so cute and this helps me tell you a bit about the behaviour of the Spotted Hyena.
Image taken on the 7th of September 2010 in very harsh light, and I remember seeing the "melting air" due to extreme heat and asking Andre what to do about that. This is when Mommy Hyena decided to take her baby out of the den to get some fresh air and of course I was not about to sit and watch. I had just bought my D300S and the Nikon 300 F2.8 lens, the converter was new and had not been put to use yet. I tried all the settings in the book yet my images remained unsharp and rather dull, later kept a number of interesting shots because I had never seen a baby hyena before.
The baby hyenas are born with teeth, by the way. They are pitch black, naughty, wandering all over the place as soon as their eyes open, and the whole clan takes care of them. The family is incredibly patient and gentle, and we watched for hours how they tried to put him back into the den every time he wandered too far. He was restless and probably hot, he wanted to play, then decided to have some milk but could not remember that place where the milk was coming from, so he walked all over Mom and nibbled on just about everything that resembled a teat - it was hilarious, and I took a number of shots I shall never delete, because I have visited the Kalahari so many times afterwards but never saw a hyena pup again.
1/1250
F6.3
ISO 500
Nikon 300mm F2.8
1.4 converter
D300S
Hi Gabriela - Hyena cubs are cute. I had the pleasure of seeing a few outside an active den site in the Timbavati on my last trip. I like the placement in frame, the pov and the intense stare while still carrying the cub. It looks like you handled the harsh light and heat waves well. I do think you could go for a bit more variation in tone for the conversion. I wish that we could see the feet and the bottom of the cub but I'm guessing there was nothing you could do to avoid the ridge. Keep experimenting with conversions.
Gabriela, cool sighting! I agree with Rachel, this one needs to have lots of tonal variation in the hyena to make it stand out for me - too grey as it is...
Work with the dodge tool - dodge midtones a bit then highlights a bit and repeat until you are happy with the results?
Thank you so much for your comments and advice, been trying the whole evening to enhance this image but not yet happy with the result, it looks over processed. Give me some time and I will figure out how to do this right, without exaggerating things. I love the challenge, I just feel I have to give it a break for a day or two and then try again. Tonight was exhausting, I tried every trick in the book but did not come up with something I could post.
Regarding feet missing- this image was taken from the road and the den is right under the hyena's feet. At the time I took this image Mom just brought the little chap to light. Really enjoyed this sighting and took a few hundred images in only a couple of hours, lots of interaction between the females and if I get this processing thing right I will post some more over time. The images are rather poor and some of the best action shots were taken in the shade, but I would love to be able to share them with you for interest' sake.
Have a wonderful evening!
Last edited by Gabriela Plesea; 04-10-2014 at 02:16 PM.
Reason: word repetition
Hi Gabriela cool sighting and i think the legs do not bother me , it is about the carried puppie, at least for me.
Agree with Morkel and Rachel more tonal variation is needed , but think the image is overall a tad dark .
So it tweaked it in just a short time , WDYT? Not meant to be perfect , just my the direction i would try to go. Happy fiddling.
Thank you dear Andreas, you are so kind! I ended up with something similar but maybe a bit too contrasty, was not happy with the outcome of global adjustment so I started from scratch and applied the changes to the subjects (selectively), only to realise later that they looked almost "cutout" from the BG. So I am fiddling for now, trying to find a compromise.
A tough one, since at the time I was quite taken with the way the hyena were blending with their surroundings, the den was so well chosen and I guess most people (including us) drove up and down a lot without noticing them unless they stood up and walked around. My dilemma right now: do I emphasise the subjects to make the image more appealing to the viewer, or shall I try to show how well they blend within their environment when they want/need to? Something in-between?
Once again, thank you for taking the time to help, my image looks gray and dull next to your RP and I love your subtle changes!
Hi Gabriela, have to leave it with others re colour & tonal range, however I really like the image, something different and interesting. Having the legs would have been nice, but not always seen when shooting in conditions like this, trust me, I made a huge error this morning in a very one off image!!!! Personally i would try just B/W before going to a toned image, it's more fun and perhaps has more impact. Yes I do like space around an image at times, but I feel you could go a little tighter on this one, WDYT?
Great to see you exploring and revisiting images, well done.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Very interesting image because of the behavior you captured! Glad you included the story since at first I thought the pup was prey with the hanging head and limp body. I really like the eyes & expression on mama. I prefer the lighter version presented by Andreas.
Hi I thought it was prey too Im glad its not! I am OK with the feet being cut off. I like Morkel's repost because its a little lighter and brought more detail out in the face.
Not sure this works for you, it does not work for me either-planning to start from the beginning and see if I can rescue this. Glad you all realised she's a great Mom, despite the fearsome look. The gentleness of that grip is hard to describe, the little one closed his eyes every time she grabbed him, not with pain but with pleasure. As soon as she released him he jumped at her muzzle, biting her with his sharp little pins. How wonderful and surprising Nature is!
Andre says this is scratchy and obviously cropping further did not help with the IQ, will select an image with better IQ and repost.
Naughty Spotty
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