Dramatic giraffe-scape

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This is a scene from Masai Mara (2013) where there were heavy clouds hovering and the rays of light were hitting the Mara plains. It looks almost like 'calm before the storm' & the lone giraffe seemed to enjoy his freedom and the vast open land. Converted in Nik Silver Efex Pro (high contrast preset) It seems a tad crunchy to me or have I gone overboard with this?. Pl let me know your thoughts.
Regards,
Sanjeev
7D
70mm
1/1600
f/4
ISO 100

[Morkel Erasmus]

I see what you were going for, Sanjeev. To me it seems to be "pushed" a bit though. The square format also works, but I would have liked a sliver more space at the bottom.
I would also have liked a tad more space on the RHS to leave room for that tree in the BG to "breathe".
Perhaps post the original colour version, and I will play around with it as well?

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks Morkel. I don't have any space below as in the desire to highlight the sky, I shot it this way. I did straighten the image a wee bit hence lost some from bottom and right. Will post the original.

[Dumay de Boulle]

I am no expert in b&w images so I will add my thoughts regarding comp and what I see.
I feel the square crop is not ideal for a scape. I would crop below the dark clouds as I feel there is enough congrats in the lighter clouds. I feel the dark clouds in the top LHC take the image off balance, too much dark on the LHS.
I like the Acacia in the lower RHC.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - It does look like a dramatic sky and lighting and I know what you were trying to do, but I do think you pushed it too far. The image has a very gritty look to it. Why f4? On an animalscape like this with sufficient ss and at 70mm, I would have stopped down a bit.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Sanjeev,

Love to see you experimenting, there is no better way to learn and this is one image you can do quite a lot with.

I too see where you were going and in fact I do like the placement of the subject in the frame, save for that little bit missing at the bottom:) This solitary giraffe looks lost in the vast landscape and I guess the sighting must have been quite awesome, with those rays penetrating the clouds and creating this dramatic effect (makes me really curious to see the colour version).

Not sure how you feel about cloning, if this were mine I would remove those tiny branches at the back of the giraffe.

Regarding the use of Nik - I have experimented with it on occasion and found that one must be very careful and rather paint where needed, rather than apply the effect to the whole image. Try not to work at 100%, reduce the effect to some degree (matter of taste, of course).

And maybe Dumay is right regarding crop, try crop below the darkest clouds and see if the image does not look more balanced? These are mere suggestions and thoughts that come to my mind, I also feel the subject is a tad underexposed (unless you wanted that effect).

This image is worth revisiting Sanjeev, you cannot change the F-stop and ISO now but you can process it in many other ways, I certainly look forward to see other versions if you don't mind and have the time to RP!

Warmest regards, have a great week-end,

[Steve Canuel]

Agree with your own assessment on this one Sanjeev. Also agree with Dumay about cropping out the dark clouds. I don't think they add much and the rest of the clouds have enough interest to make up for their exclusion.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, firstly, top marks in thinking outside the box and exploring a different medium to portray the image and I like the fact you've gone to B/W for this.

Format, well I like the original choice, landscape, but agree, a hint more below would be good. Often a scene may not allow you to set things up with the camera gear and therefore you have to choose going the PP route. If you had time, then adding a ND filter for the sky may have helped as you can control how far down you go to emphasis the sky, but then you need a different set-up on the front of the lens. I agree with you, I think you have 'pushed' it too far and that the effect is global rather than targeted, there are also some halos too.

If it was me, I would look to getting the image looking right in terms of an overall balance, so you have a good platform/base to work from, then adjust accordingly, if you know what I mean?

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sanjeev i love this one a lot , comp does not bother me at all . I like the stark contrast .
Only the strong noise /grain and the halos are not ideal from my POV .

TFS Andreas

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Sanjeev,

I trumpet with this in Andreas horn, means I feel the same. Comp is fine for me, only the noise bothers me and the "sharp" clouds. Clouds I never sharpen, simply because they cannot be sharp, cotton balls floating in air. but this is a taste thing to everybody else. I would whoosh over a selective noise reduction in the sky to get rid of the noise
Very nice

have a great day

Ciao Anette