Etosha Elephant

[Glenn Pure]

Fairly sure this is an old male with tusks that have not survived the ravages of time and old age. Mineral deficient diets for Etosha Elephants is also thought to result in tusks that easily break. He had just been having a big dust bath - hope to post another frame of that too. We were parked next to a waterhole and he was making his way towards that. I've deliberately gone for a tight crop here to emphasise his size and majesty. Cropped from horizontal, this is the full frame vertically.

Thank you for looking and any comments you are kind enough to share.

Technical: Canon 80D with Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/2500, f5.6, ISO 500. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, Sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements. Lighting adjustments to animal where shadows lifted a little and contrast boosted to emphasise skin texture. Background darkened. Sharpened (sharpness function: remove Gaussian blur, radius = 0.4 pixels, 50%) after final size reduction.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Glenn - Looks like gorgeous golden light bathing this big ele. The Etosha eles are special. Nice detail and tones. I would apply a little more sharpening to the head and trunk if it were mine. I know you purposely went tight and I don't mind it on the sides or above, I just would like a little more room below for him to walk into. Looking forward to seeing the dust bath images.

TFS,
Rachel

[John Mack]

Nice elephant like the light and all the dirt/mud.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Glenn , i am so glad you posted this one !!!!
As i do love those Etosha big boys ....they do behave so calm and gentle from my experience .
I do like the overall image as presented with that nice light and the stunning tonal variation in the ellie skin .
Just wish for more room at the foot , a wee bit tight i think.

Lovely work with that head on shot.

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow that is some shot Glenn - really impressive. I have to agree a little more at the base wouldn't hurt.....looking forward to more.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Glenn,

Majestic creature indeed and truly a wonderful capture. Light is beautiful and the shadow just adds to the image. I do like the colours and tones. Just thinking, a slight curve in PSCC - applied selectively - would add even more depth? And I agree with above comments, this frame is crying for a bit more FG - you had the right lens for the job and could have zoomed out a little:)

Cannot wait to see the dust bath images, bring them on please!

My apologies for being a little scarce lately, a bit overwhelmed with work

Kind regards,

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Here is a new version with a canvas extension at the bottom. I just did a 'quick and dirty' here by editing the saved jpg. But sufficient for the purposes of discussion. While I'm generally not keen on making changes like this, I think it does improve the image. Another round of sharpening too so this one should look a like crisper, Rachel, although I was comfortable with the look of the OP in that area.

[William Dickson]

Very nice Glenn. And, I think the RP is better. I love the POV and the textures you have captured. The head looks very impressive indeed.

Will

[Stuart Philpott]

Majestic indeed Glenn gorgeous in capture the framing really does emphasise how massive he is the tusks tell a story and add to his wisoned old look.

Beautiful glenn

stu

[Giovanni Frescura]

Hello the shoot is very very particular..and light and mud very interesting...
In this photos there is the problem that sometime I have ; how take the photo when a part of the subject is in light and the other is in shadow ? In this case I think it is no a problem becouse the leg on the left side is in light and give dinamism to the elephant and all the photo is well composed
Very nice!
Gio

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Glenn, for a 'big old unit' like this, he just commands more space all round, it's just too tight and for me, it looses the impact unless you go really tight in. With that particular lens it provides you an excellent opportunity to frame, but allow yourself an extra 10-15% all round for final cropping. In addition and I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, but f/9 - f/11 I personally feel would have helped, but then you lose SS and cannot 'claw' things back with using more ISO sadly. Head on is good and I like the bent leg and curl of the tip of the trunk. I also feel you could play with the light more adding to the dramatic scene. Perhaps going B/W may be another option?

TFS
Steve

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Glenn, excellent detail on this large fellow, and I like the bits of mud caked on various parts of his body. Another vote for more room below.

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks for the additional critiques. I agree that I should have zoomed back a bit to give me more frame to play with - after all, it is the major benefit of using a zoom. Artie posted on his blog a while ago about this problem and it's always tempting to go tight and get as many pixels on the subject as possible. It's a temptation I often find hard to resist.

Hi Glenn, for a 'big old unit' like this, he just commands more space all round, it's just too tight and for me, it looses the impact unless you go really tight in. With that particular lens it provides you an excellent opportunity to frame, but allow yourself an extra 10-15% all round for final cropping. In addition and I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, but f/9 - f/11 I personally feel would have helped, but then you lose SS and cannot 'claw' things back with using more ISO sadly. Head on is good and I like the bent leg and curl of the tip of the trunk. I also feel you could play with the light more adding to the dramatic scene. Perhaps going B/W may be another option?

Thanks for your detailed suggestions Steve. As for the tight composition, while I didn't have the frame (vertically at least) to play with I did envisage this as an 'in your face' shot of nearly frame-filling proportions to provide impact - also as a more pano shot with the environment around either side (maybe this is what you were suggesting?). For me, loosening the crop would weaken that impact so I'm not entirely clear of the logic here. For aperture, yes, more dof would have been safer and I honestly don't know why I was at f5.6. I suspect is was simply a bungle on my part at the time I took this. I try to remember checking all my settings before firing away but sometimes it doesn't happen comprehensively. As for B&W, I tried with some other frames of this elephant and felt it lost some of the impact, but a sensible suggestion all the same, so thanks for that.

[Steve Kaluski]

I did envisage this as an 'in your face' shot of nearly frame-filling proportions to provide impact

Hi Glenn, I think the first issue then was that you shot landscape not vertical and so you through away a chunk of valuable date by cropping.

I try to remember checking all my settings before firing away but sometimes it doesn't happen comprehensively.

Yep, I know the feeling and it's easy to clip a dial on the back which in turn can change a setting.

As for B&W, I tried with some other frames of this elephant and felt it lost some of the impact,

I think the issue is the light, without seeing the raw it's hard to say, but playing with the light & exposure may help to gain that 'dramatic' look? I'll send you a link for inspiration.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Glenn -- Very late on this and all things have been said and covered above . I would just appreciate this image and the subject , superbly done !