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Thread: True Love and a Tiny Bite

  1. #1
    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Default True Love and a Tiny Bite

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    Dear friends,

    I am still fiddling with my RP's and need some time to review what I have been working on tonight, here's another one from the Mother and Cubs Series and I hope I have not overcooked the sharpening again - Andre was kind enough to help me sharpen for web and we followed Andreas's instructions (Thank You Andreas!).

    Have a great week-end!

    Nikon D4
    Nikon 300 F2.8
    ISO 5000
    F8
    1/1250
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela , it is late just saw this , almost in bed now.
    Sharpening looks very very nice , at least to my eyes.Nice tender moment .Great details and nice colors.
    You might watch the blacks , but that is being picky.
    I worked with just two adjustment layers . Opened up 3/4 tones with a slight curve selected via TK panel and a levels adjustment , pushed the HL slider to 232 and masked out the HL .
    RP is just only for illustration , because i think the OP is slightly dark.All subjective,.

    Ps : look into your mail accounts . sent you two images , would like to know your thoughts .

    Good night ; Andreas

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    BPN Member Anette Mossbacher's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela,

    what a nice scene of the 2. Andreas did a nice job in the RP. The details and sharpening looks great to me as well and I just love the up side down chap

    Have a great weekend

    Ciao
    Anette

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Thank you Andreas and Anette!

    So glad you like the sharpening, I will stick to this which you have taught us ,Andreas - I like the results

    I battled to open up the blacks in some places here, avoided contrast and lifted shadows, tried a lumo layer and even dodging. I could have tried Nik, but decided against it. In those areas - like, below the head of the cub and the line above the eye - I just could not open up more. The blacks are choked. I have this issue with a couple of images from this series and all were taken after 5pm and at relatively high ISO, but I still liked the moment captured so I decided to share.

    Nevertheless, glad you enjoyed the scene. I think it is time to look for something new to post, I fear you might get bored with my lions...

    Enjoy the week-end,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hi Gabriela

    Iīm not bored. I love lions, and this is nice. Close and personal. So lions.

    I actually canīt se a difference between OP and RP.

    TFS / Gregor

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    BPN Member Mark Needham's Avatar
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    Lovely image, Gabriela. details and sharpening look fine to me.
    Mark Needham

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    If this is not a 'love bite' then I don't know what is, Gabriela! It even looks like the 'receiver' is enjoying it!

    Beautiful in all regards! Just like Gregor I can't see a difference between the two versions.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela, nice interaction and glad to see you didn't clip the raised paw, good also to see you pushing the ISO. I also like the lowish POV too. Not sold on the blacks of the gums of the RH lion, looks all washed out.

    Comparing the two images I think, it's probably a combination of the two, but prefer your tonal range in the face of the LH lion, Andrea's is too even I feel.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Morning Steve

    I am also glad the one paw is in, I just took off a little from the RHS, did not like half a leg in the frame and it somehow took away from that intimate scene I wanted. I agree with the gums, I had some colour casts there and while removing them I remember lightening the area a bit to get more detail, I think I can fix this, thank you so much for pointing this out

    And thank you Gregor, Mark and Tobie, much appreciated!!

    Hope you all enjoy the day,

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hi Gabriela

    A very sweet moment captured here...! Thanks for sharing. I don't have the eye others in this forum have because I too struggle to see the difference between the OP and the RP by Andreas, even after reading his adjustments... Not sure if its my 'less the desirable monitor' or just the 'less than desirable' parts of me... anyway I also love your lion images.

    regards

    DON

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Lovely moment nicely framed Gabriela! Good to see you pushing that D3s to new "heights"
    I seem to be the odd one out here but the sharpening looks overcooked to me on both versions.

    Those who don't see a difference between OP and RP need to have your lighting conditions and screen calibration checked - repost is much a bit less contrasty and a little lighter especially in midtones, albeit a bit too light for me.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Glad you mentioned the sharpening issue Morkel, no harm in it whatsoever and I always appreciate your input - I am really trying to get this right and experimenting with various methods. Last night I worked on another image and once again I felt it was over sharpened, set it aside instead of posting, so I can take a fresh look again today. If I do not post tonight you will know I overcooked it again Oh well, I will eventually figure this out, Andreas is arriving soon and then I have two pairs of eyes to judge (Andre and Andreas too!)

    Have a great Sunday,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Oh well , Gabriela it will not help with even 8 pairs of eyes , when we have different views on the sharpening i.e. how much is right .

    I disagree with Morkel or others who have the same opinion , to me (personal ) it looks just bang on.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Let me clarify - there are areas where I would tone it back where the fur gets a tad crispy IMHO
    Morkel Erasmus

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    That sounds a little bit different , agree with you on that point . just wanted to be not tooooo critical , reason why i said bang on !!!!

    Just to clarify

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Andreas, remember a screen will never show you the true rendition of sharpening, the real test is at print size/output.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Great stuff, I get the message dear gentlemen

    Morkel, Andreas is being gentle on me because he sees I am beginning to get the idea, just does not want to discourage me...I see what you mean and have identified those areas where it gets "crispy". I have also come to conclusion that I might have lifted the shadows too much in LR, before going to CS6. Therefore the final product is a bit washed-out...

    I have been busy doing a sharpening exercise on a lion yawning, some blown whites on the chin and other problems otherwise I would have posted it. I picked it because of the tongue with its whitish pappilae. But the difficulty arose with the dark gums, and not with the tongue, where I could see clearly if it was too much. I also battled with some shiny areas on the black parts (overexposed). I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon to get rid of the magentas, cyans and blues on these gums and then I had to darken the area so that the colour looked natural. I think I have learnt a lot more than sharpening from my little exercise...

    I am in agreement with Steve, Andre once printed a few of my images which I sold at an artwork evening here in the village. Nothing fancy, we all got together to raise some money for a local conservation project. I thought my images were great until I looked at the prints carefully and realized that my sharpening was poor...Printing is unforgiving. Luckily the people who bought the prints did not mind, or perhaps did not notice. I am just glad they cared enough about this endangered species to take the prints home.

    I have learnt so much here on BPN, and still learning. I take is as an act of friendship and kindness when you tell me what you think is wrong with my images

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Mark Needham's Avatar
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    Very well said when you mentioned "I take is as an act of friendship and kindness when you tell me what you think is wrong with my images." I agree wholeheartedly with this statement, and it is what makes BPN such a great resource and group of friends. I am thrilled when wonderful photographers like everyone here take the time to carefully and honestly critique my images; it points me in the right direction and allows me to continue learning and growing with my photography. For this, I am eternally grateful to you all!
    Mark Needham

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Steve , remember i gave suggestions for sharpening for web output , not for print output .So i make my judgement for the output device , in this case for screen . And i can make judgement on my screen , not on yours or Gabriela`s , right ?
    So all is made on and for my screen and eyes .

    And honestly i have almost no idea how to sharpen for print , because i do not print .

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    No worries, that's fine.

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    Lovely image Gabriela. You were obviously, higher than me as I have quite a lot of obstruction such as small tufts of grass in many images similar to this one.

    How come your threads almost always seem to create some interesting posts huh?

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Dearest Carl,

    Thank you so much, and yes I was up there with the lions, remember I climbed all the way to the back seat (in fact I rolled over gently because of the sheer size of the mama lion behind me). This is not one of the scenes that happened in front of us, this was behind the vehicle when the lions blocked our retreat, the image was taken after 5pm. No grass tufts here in any of my shots.

    About my threads...just checked, out of curiosity, some statistics: I have so far about 1500 posts and 110 threads, meaning I have been quite active. I write an average of 10 comments on other members' images every time I post one. Some evenings I just view and comment. This, because I wish to repay others for their comments and help with my own images. I also tell little stories about what happened, which people seem to like. And lastly, sometimes I take more time choosing a title for my image than I take to process it. On occasion I decide not to describe what is happening, or to name the characters in the frame, that is already obvious from the thumbnail. To me, a title such as "big elephant and baby", "charging rhino" or "lion drinking" can be a bit boring, one can see clearly what is going on. Instead, I choose something that tells the viewer how I felt about the subject, and at times I add a little more to make you guys curious about it: "Disaster Approaching", " Sinister Ballet" "Blood, Lions, Life", " Of Beauty and Death" and so forth. You get the idea - I am trying to entice you and not give away the whole story
    So interesting threads bring about interesting responses , my efforts to improve are not ignored by the members (thank you guys and girls!) and yes some misunderstandings from time to time but we're all one big family here and it's cool, just makes things (again that word!) INTERESTING

    And Carl...I miss my lions, can we please please see them again sometime? Pretty please?

    Have a wonderful evening,
    Last edited by Rachel Hollander; 09-18-2014 at 03:21 PM. Reason: at request of Gabriela corrected info about number of posts
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela- cute moment and I too like the framing. I too apply sharpening selectively by adjusting the opacity of the layer. I'm with Steve and would take bits of each image and combine them. Of course, that's easier said than done.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Thank you dearest Rachel,

    As I review this image again tonight, I think I see clearly what it lacks. I think I will do an RP at the week-end, considering all the comments and advice received. Thank you all so much, cannot tell you how much I appreciate it!

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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