Gemsbok & Namibian Landscape

[Richard Flack]

My wife and I spent an awesome 4 weeks in Namibia in 2012. I liked this peaceful image of a gemsbok in a typical Namibian landscape. Appreciate any comments.

Location: On the way to Sossusvlie
Date taken: July 2012
Photo details:
Canon EOS 7D
400mm f2.8
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/4000
F stop 6.3
Exposure bias -1
Sharpened the Gemsbok (not sure if I should have just left it as is?)

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Richard

I enjoyed the solitude of the lone Gemsbok in this harsh environment.

Not enough detail in the grass around the Gemsbok.

Why did you under expose?

Did RP (please excuse quick masking) Focussed on BG to enhance and let the eye wander a bit from Gemsbok to mountain, and everything in between.

Did D&B layer to enhance and to create depth, blued the skye a bit.

Some noise at 200 ISO?

WDYT?

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Richard, I think this is a difficult image to pull off with the subject small in the frame and strong shadow on the chest. My only suggestion would be for you to get closer to the subject and use an intermediate focal length for this type of animalscape shot. Loi

[Richard Flack]

Thanks so much for the feedback Andre and for taking the time. What is very clear to me is that I must spend time learning a lot more about post processing. I am a real amateur in this regard and must just make the time to improve.
I will have a look at your repost as soon as I get to a PC. Thanks.
In terms of your questions. I underexposed by accident but liked the pastel effect it gave. And why noise? Possibly because the lens I was using was actually a 100 to 400 at full length NOT the 400 f2f.8. Other than that, no idea. Thanks for taking the time as I am learning a ton from you guys.
Loi, thanks so much for the frank feedback. I tend to agree.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Richard - A classic Namibian scene. I was there in August 2012. I'm ok with your comp. The image is underexposed as you acknowledged but also it looks like the light was harsh. I would have gone for more dof. Even with correcting the underexposure you still could have stopped down a bit more as you had plenty of ss. Your op is very flat and there's a lot more detail that can be brought out. Andre did a good job but I started with your op, brought up the exposure .3, did a gamma correction, added some depth to the yellows in a hue/saturation layer, added a couple of points of black to the neutrals in selective color, levels and curves and finally a little NR on the hill and sky. I'm still not really happy with the color and think that you could do much more with the RAW. Btw your image did not have an embedded color profile. Check out the sticky at the top of the forum on saving for web.

The best way to learn and get the most out of BPN is to participate in lots of threads, asking questions and learning from other people's posts and images as well as your own.

TFS,
Rachel

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice version from Rachel. Pity about the shadow on its body - probably too dark to recover in pp. Beautiful animal and I like the composition!