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Thread: Elephant Silhouette

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Default Elephant Silhouette

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    Just a reminder that July's Theme is Silhouettes. Here's one taken on our recent trip. Steve will tell you that I drove him and Alison a little crazy wanting to get some silhouette images. Usually either the game or the bush did not cooperate. This particular evening we had spent time driving around Londolozi's plateau looking for possible subjects with no luck. So we stopped for our sundowners and were just enjoying the sunset ourselves. In fact we were on our second round when a line of elephants appeared near the edge of the plateau ambling by. We grabbed our cameras and fired off some images. It was already pretty dark so I had to open up the aperture pretty wide and use a slow ss to get some distinction between the elephant and the surrounds and to get some color. Even then I definitely had to do some adjustments to the wb, exp and tone in ACR to bring out some sunset colors. Ideally I would have preferred less merger between the ele and the foliage but it wasn't to be.

    Canon 5D3
    70-200 II @ 160mm
    1/60
    f3.5
    ISO 1600
    HH on foot, cropped to 16x9, levels, curves, sharpened in CCPS.

    C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

    Rachel

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Rachel , first of all the image looks way better in PS , i was thinking about the weird reds coming through in the shadow areas . But they are not visible when looking in PS ?

    I quite like the overall comp , the superb sky and BKG colors and the hint of detail in the elephant.Only little nit for me is the intersecting horizon with the top of the Elephant , but i guess you had no other choice to get lower or higher , do you ?.

    Well done , Rachel and TFS

    Andreas

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Thanks Andreas. I wonder if what you are seeing is a browser issue because I viewed it in Firefox, IE and Chrome and don't see reds in the shadow area. Similarly they are not there in PS for me either. Firefox and IE present closest to what I see in PS. Chrome seems to amp the saturation a little to me.

    I tried taking the images both standing and kneeling on the ground. Unfortunately, neither let me avoid the intersection of elephant and horizon.

    Thanks again,
    Rachel

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Yes Rachel could be the browser , my first thought was if you used old DPP for conversion , because i felt , depending in the tone curve preset , i had the same effect ........
    But no big deal , i like to stick to Safari and if its critical i just open the images in PS , before i say something stupid .

    I thought it was difficult to avoid the intersection , thanks for the additional info

    Cheers Andreas

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    The intersection, IMO, makes the elephant more visible than it otherwise would be due to the dark surrounding. So no nits. :)

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    I first viewed this on a non-cal monitor and it looked too dark, couldn't see the outline clearly, so I reserved commenting.
    On my home monitor it looks nice - good pose and layering (not much ado about the intersection as mentioned). I would try playing a bit with FG and midground luminosity Rachel, to get a bit more pop to the subject?
    Morkel Erasmus

    WEBSITE


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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Hello Rachel,

    I am viewing this on my Apple and I like it, the colours are lovely and the elie silhouette is superb, love the sky. Wondering what happened if you followed Morkel's suggestion?

    Great work Rachel! I started working on a "silhouette" the other night and ended up with a very slim and bright outline of my subject - my imagination went too far, will have to review and maybe I will drop you an email when I get a chance.

    Looking forward to more posts from you, and especially of those animals so dear to my heart...I'll be patient

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Very nice composition with the sharp dark outline of the top of the elephant against the pale yellow/orange sky first capturing one's attention, then the softer colors and shapes that are just visible in the dusky darkness fill in the remainder of the image. This really gives one the feel of the African evening with the last little bit of light.

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  13. #9
    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Thanks Neil, Morkel, Gabriela and Nancy for the comments and suggestions.

    Rachel

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Rachel, can't really comment to much as depending on head position everything keeps changing on the laptop so not ideal, so have to go with any suggests others may have. Any reason why such a slow SS? My only thought is have you tried a 3x2 crop rather than a 16x9/pano, just feel there may be a tad too much to the right.

    Yes, you did have a thing about these images, likewise an animals body part too, can't say as I don't want to give things away and no, nothing rude before any thinks that.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Thanks Steve, You know I like more negative space than you. The slow ss was because this was the last ele in the line and by the time the ele got clear of the trees on the left it was pretty dark, I needed the slow ss and the f3.5 to get any light and separation between the ele and the surrounding bush. While the 5D3 can handle higher ISOs, my personally feeling is that those higher ISOs are fine for web presentation but not necessarily for prints so I prefer to keep the ISOs lower. Sometimes it is not possible but here where dof, fine detail and sharpness are not as much of a concern, I went with a lower ISO and slower ss to capture the silhouette but still capture the last remaining light.

    Rachel

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