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Thread: My Kalahari

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Default My Kalahari

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    February 2014 and the sun is setting, it is 6:22 pm. Polentswa waterhole just after the rain. An old lion picks up the scent of a resident female and is waiting for her, all on his own. Later that night we still listened to his deep roars as we prepared our dinner and ate in silence.

    Nikon D3S
    Nikon 70-200 F2.8 @ 95mm
    ISO 500
    F3.2
    1/100s

    I stumbled upon this image so many times while browsing through my folders, felt it was not good enough by BPN standards. The colours might look odd to you, and do keep in mind it was quite dark at the time I captured this. But tonight I felt like showing you MY KALAHARI as I remember it - I miss the place tremendously.

    Thank you so much for viewing.
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela love this peacefully looking shot with the tiny lion on RHS .
    The landscape does look so " not Kalahari" to me , cause of all the greens !!!
    Nice detail and tones but ......... the sky does look fake to me . Gradient ? even a color gradient ?
    Some wide haloing around the trees / along the horizon ? Reddish thin branches in the big acacia tree ?

    Too much of LR 6 capability visible ? Just joking .

    Nice try , but i think the sky is a bit too processed .

    Cheers my sister , sorry for my partly negative comment .

    Andreas

  3. #3
    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Morning Andreas:)

    I knew this was coming LOL, no need to apologise Boetie:)

    I was missing the KTP quite badly last night, looked at the calendar and realised still 75 days to go till I see the place again, way too long... Browsing through some folders and looking for a particular image I found this, unfortunately no time to revisit in terms of PP work so I hope you'll forgive me if I leave it as it is, for now? November/December a bit difficult for me to participate due to time constraints, I love being on BPN so I will probably end up sharing some older images, if that's ok?

    Re. gradient - if I were to use one now I would choose a different look for the sky, but I will have a look anyway and let you know.

    I agree the sky looks over-processed - thank you Boetie, and I will try find some more images of green Kalahari for you, with flowers and all!

    Have a wonderful day,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    so many times while browsing through my folders, felt it was not good enough by BPN standards.
    Hi Gabriela, you know only too well there are no standards, just sharing with like minded folk.


    The landscape does look so " not Kalahari" to me , cause of all the greens !!!
    I had the same thought Andreas, it looks more like 'safari parks' over here, where kids go on day trips with schools, or old folks go for their afternoon drive on a Sunday afternoon, not the Kalahari .

    I like the wider aspect and the subject smaller in frame, makes for a nice change. The techs, well you know, so we'll pass on that . The colours, well you were there, however I don't think the sky looks processed, I just feel the top portion needs a bit more depth, looks a bit thin and so going a little darker in tone may just help frame it more?

    As I said to Jim in Avian, remember, you are trying to create a 3D image from a 2D capture.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela - There's a certain tranquility to the scene, the quiet before the storm or hunt. I like the small in frame and placement of the lion. I too was surprised at the green. I agree that the sky looks off.

    I bet if you were shooting and processing this now, almost everything would be different both techs in the field and pp.

    As you know, the age of the image makes no difference. BPN is just a place for us all to post images and learn from each other.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Gabriela is this processed with todays knowledge or with older skills ......?

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

    Sorry to take so long to get back to you, saw your replies while at work but had no chance to sit down and write.

    Steve, I have many images I am happy with and which I share on BPN with a degree of confidence. But there are those I keep to myself because I like the scene or moment captured but techs and PP work just not there. I call those "substandard", LOL.

    Last night I came upon this one while I was showing my Mom what the KTP looks like after the rain (she thought it was a desert with hardly a tree or a bush). Indeed the place can be green and lush and filled with flowers, hope I find the time to share some of those images with you in the future, but I have to rework them otherwise my Boetie Mr. B.E aka Nitpicker will pick on me:)

    Rachel, this frame is one of many, at the time I was playing around with Andre's old 70-200, a month later I bought my own. I have a number of images taken at various settings, some processed some not, last night I had no time to do PP work so I shared what I had.

    Andreas, I am certain this was processed in LR and CS6, at the time I was still using Nik so I might have used a Nik effect and applied it selectively (maybe not selective enough) cannot tell for sure because up until last year I used to flatten the layers, LOL. I tried to "fix" a few things last night in terms of exposure and to get more detail on the lion (which was too dark), then sharpened for web.

    Rachel, my workflow has changed tremendously and as you know, I have a more gentle approach these days. This is not a very old image (Feb 2014) , it was taken six months before we went with Andreas to the KTP. I was trying this lens and shot at various ISO, some frames with higher aperture. The light was fading fast, earlier frames show this lovely old lion walking in the rain, I love those images but they might be a bit "noisy".

    Thank you so much for your feedback dear friends, I really appreciate it. I might revisit this, or just pick a better one...

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela no problem if you processed this different in the past , when i look at earlier postings here on BPN from my self......... oh man ( woman) that crunchy over contrasty stuff or all other sort of implemented .
    Here in your post it is mostly the trees / sky darkened with a gradient ? filter . It would be different if you had excluded the trees from that treatment , but for sure this is me thinking loud .And well the sky color is just oh so subjective .

    Overall i like the scene a lot , BTW how does the original sky look like ?

  9. #9
    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Andreas, have you ever seen my first post on BPN Wildlife?

    I did not know about gradient filters at the time, only been using them recently. I am pretty sure I was experimenting with Nik then.

    Here's the original, Boetie:)
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Thank you Gabriela for the original , from my POV very difficult to get a decent sky as parts are very very light .....and that are the areas that appear very pinkish in your post , as if color has been introduced where no color detail was present .

    Just my thoughts Gabriela .

    Cheerio

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    A dreamy scene from sure, I do love the Kalahari in all its facets (dry to green and everything in between).
    A lovely scenic view of the upper Nossob riverbed. Would you believe I've never slept at Polentswa? We can now, with out Conqueror trailer and the kids almost at the right age.

    Anyhow - love the mood but do agree the sky was overworked. Looking at the original I'd have opted for a darker exposure. You can recover a LOT of detail from underexposed files on the Nikon cameras, and thereby you would have protected the highlights in the sky. Tough call after the fact, but something I learned through shooting various animalscapes in these kinds of conditions.

    We are hitting KTP on 1 January, so a tad less than 75 days for me
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Hi Gabriela -- Lovely Lion-scape ! I tremendosuly enjoyed reading the comments abv , had a query on that which i have mailed you .

    As far as the image is concerned , some how the sky doesn't appear to me fake or way too much processed i am ok with , it could have been better .

    The scene has a very calm and peaceful feel to it which i loved the most about this image .

    TFS !

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    A pleasing KTP animalscape here Gabriela, it would be worth investigating that sky again via TK masking.

    TFS


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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Beautiful scene captured here Gabriela. I'd be very interested to see what you could come up with if you re-processed with your up to date knowledge. For me it would be worth it as the shot has so much potential, and I bet it could look great printed large.

    Mike

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Thank you so much Andreas, Morkel, Haseeb, Marc and Mike!

    Marc, I have never used TK:) Haseeb, will get back to you at the week-end regarding your query.

    Morkel - I am jealous of your "less than 75 days", LOL. And you just have to sleep at Polentswa, no 3 if possible - there's a bunch of cute characters around the camp some people don't even know of (driestreep muis, boom rotte). This is where I once stepped on a Puff Adder, so watch out for those stormy nights, snakes and scorpions galore. Still one of my favourite places in the world. Drop me a line before you go:)

    Mike, thank you for kind words, will give it another try when I get a chance.

    Hope you all have a good evening, we are experiencing a thunderstorm and some drops of rain are coming down, hope it lasts for longer than a few minutes...

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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