Warthog Youngster

[Loi Nguyen]

It's often difficult to get close to warthogs. They are shy critters and often run away at the sight of safari vehicles. While waiting for my bush flight from Kwando Lagoon to Duba Plains, I saw a family of warthogs foraging near the airstrip, so i got out of the vehicle, lying flat on the ground to take pictures of them. It was at mid day and bright sun. Then unexpectedly, this youngster approached me. I had a 70-200f2.8 plus a 1.4X converter on and was frantically removing the converter as I realized he was going to get really close. I managed to do so and took a few shots before he decided 4 meters was too close for his comfort and veered off. It was a great encounter!

1DX
70-200f2.8 II @ 192mm
1/800
F8
ISO-800
Handheld

Cropped slightly for comp.

Thank you for your comments.

Loi

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Loi

Like this PIG!

Nice detail on face, would like to see bit more detail on nose.

F8 worked well here, good exposure and non competing BG.

Not to sure about crop? Do not have any suggestions, tried a few, none works

POV works, hope you dusted yourself before boarding!

Andre

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Andre, thanks for your comment. I agreed the nose area a bit dark, will look into it. Meanwhile, here is a picture of me on the ground frantically removing the 2.0X converter (not a 1.4X as I posted originally). I dod have other frames with full body of the warthog, but love this detail close up.

For reference I'm 1.7m tall. This picture was taken by my wife with her iPAD from the safari vehicle.

Loi

[Gabriela Plesea]

Loi!!!! I love the OP, but the " RP" is much more fun, please thank Adele from me for taking this photograph! And I love the hat! Brilliant stuff, and by the way I like your warthog close-up, he is so cute and has this inquisitive look about him, I guess he found the hat quite intimidating and ran off...

Have a great evening,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - great low pov and Adele's image shows why. The image looks a little washed out to me, like you opened up the midtones and recovered the shadows too much. There's also a magenta cast and some blue coming through. I agree with Andre that the crop doesn't really work. It is too in between for me, like a tennis player hanging out in no man's land on the tennis court. You either needed to go wider and include the feet or tighter for just the face. Here's a rp giving the midtones a bit more depth, correcting the color casts and cropping a bit tighter but keeping your ratio. WDYT? It's all there in the image, you just need to optimize it.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, your RP is great. I just set the exposure a bit high, didn't do anything with the shadow. I can see the magenta cast now, but still not the blue, but then color cast is the hardest thing to see I think. The OP is almost full frame, so I can go tighter as you did here, but not wider. I will work on this, but not repost since I think your RP addresses all of the issues. Thanks again. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, Rachel's RP I feel is the way to go, you could go tighter, but that would mean only having one leg in shot which may look a little strange. Using some exp, curves & channel selections I think you can get a bit more depth within the head, as again, the image looks flat. Obviously getting out of the vehicle was OK, with permission, but not always recommended. Could be a contender for going B/W too?

TFS
Steve

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, I realized my mistake now. I had opened up the mid tone via Levels to 1.10, thus creating the wash out effect. I decided to crop tight, but use the 4 ratio. Should have kept the 2.0X converter on!!! Reduced the magenta via Selective Color. Will look into a B&W version later. Thanks so much!

Loi

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I like your last version, Loi! Usually these animals are very shy in terms of human contact (specially so if you're on foot!) so you were very lucky to get him so close! Looking at your belly version (and his tusks), he appears to be just about in his teenage stage so he probably felt it was time to put his bravery skills to the test!

Just wondering who would have been the fastest should a lion have appeared from the bushes behind you?

[Rachel Hollander]

Loi - rp looks good but still has a blue cast by the snout.

Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, forgot about the blue. I tried to reduce the blue on this second RP and also added more contrast. Hope you will like it better. Thanks again. Loi

[Loi Nguyen]

Sorry, last version looks too dark. Here is hopefully the last RP! Loi