Hi Folks, it's been busy with work and spending time with a 9-weeks-old Irish Water Spaniel puppy, so have not posted much.
Here is an image from the long past relative to my short time taking up this hobby (2013, first trip to Africa). How funny that we often see something more appealing while looking at a set of images that we had combed thru for the nth time looking for something good and not finding it.
1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/1250
f5.6
ISO-400
HH
Overcast gray sky, applied a little bit of cool filter to sky
Almost FF, took a sliver off the right and bottom.
Hi Loi - nice one. Processing looks better here too. I like the layers of color here and the texture on the ele. Seems like a bit of reddish cast to the ele but it may be the conditions at the time or from the dust in the area. You don't say where it was taken. Techs look good too. I might have left this ff because the ele is moving to the right and forward so having a bit more space in those directions would work.
I also see a touch of red but I like this simple portrait. A nice, slightly off angle view of the subject with a soft, complimentary BG. Congrats on the new family addition.
This is lovely, Loi - a clean image well processed and the colours are lovely - I do like it as is, at the same time I am curious to know what made you apply the cool filter and wondering whether you did the right thing taking off that sliver from the RHS, since the ellie seems to be heading in that direction. I personally do not think the red is too much, it gives more life to the subject. Do not know where this was taken, but in Hluhluwe where I live we have this amazing red soil, it also occurs in the Game Reserve nearby and so ellies, buffalo and rhino often have this reddish tinge to their skin - just like your ellie
hi Everyone, thank you for your good suggestions. The image was taken at Amboseli on an overcast sky. We stayed at Porini Camp, way way too far away, and despite leaving camp at 6AM, didn't get to the Park until 10AM. Never to do that again. We entrusted our travel to a booking tour operator and didn't do our homework. Luckily it was an overcast sky, so we had soft light, but the sky was a boring gray, that was why I applied a cool filter to the sky only. I don't rememebr really how much red the elephants here have, but i kind of like the red hue against the red of the distant mountains. Last year when i processed this series of images, they all came out too Green, not very appealing.
Rachel and Gabriela, Here is a FF version. You are right, a little more room in front of the ele does not hurt. But may be I will take a sliver off. The FF looks off balance to me.
Thank you again everyone. Much appreciated.
Loi
Last edited by Loi Nguyen; 07-17-2014 at 01:15 PM.
Hi Loi, nice one, the RP FF is better and I like the overall colours, if the WB is set/corrected right then the colours are fine, the punchy saturated grass works for me. I just think the subject could stand some more sharpening.
Lovely image Loi - and another vote for your FF RP
I cannot vouch enough for booking to stay inside the reserves if you can...the best way to maximise your safari experience (as you found out the hard way).
Hi Loi , prefer the FF version, like the overall colors / tones , but would give a tad more LCE to bring out more of the nice ellie texture in the skin, but that is mainly me .
Agree with some more USM mentioned by Steve.