Hello everyone, thank you for all your comments and suggestions to my previous post , much appreciated.
Here is another one for this months theme and took full liberty on the field to experiment with a Serval sighting in the night time. Deliberately tried to make the cat OOF to achieve this kind of effect , cloned out couple of grass blades , one slightly coming on the cheek and the other one overlapping the from leg. Personally i really liked this image but I would love to have your opinion as to whether this works for you guys or not. And what should be the way to getting such results and improving the result .
Hi Haseeb, being OOF what was the effect you wanted to achieve, as for once I'm really confused about the whole capture and the end result?????
Overall I find it very confusing and like the previous image, I do find the environment is competing with the subject, but I do like the 'film grain', it gives the image a bit of an earthy/gritty look & feel. Being OOF it also has that feel where folk have tried to capture a 'mysterious' subject like Big foot or a UFO in the 50's, where they they capture something, but it just lacks the clarity & sharpness, so you really can't truly see what it is, glad you qualified it was a Serval.
I'll be honest, I might have moved it into the OOTB Forum as it's not really within the Wildlife arena I think, but as it's part of this months Theme...
As Rachel said, she's been experimenting a lot more with B/W in the workshop she attended, so hopefully she cam add far more than I can. Sorry to be so negative, but I have to be honest and certainly out of my comfort zone, although I have tweaked the OP, hopefully it's an improvement you like.
Hi Steve — first of all there is absolutely no need to be sorry , I take all the comments in my stride and try to learn from it , so in a way it is a very positive comment for me.
With OOF I meant that mystery is attached to the cat in their night time adventures. I also want to see how far we can go in terms of creating something different and whether or not it really works for the viewer. If I happen to capture something unusual on the field then I come to think of it as very good and people will like it but it is not the case every time around and so I generally like to take opinion from fellow colleagues and photographers to get their point of views and thought process.
you never know what kind of image gets created in the process of experimentation.
so thank you once again for your honest input , much appreciated.
I think the biggest point is that it's an 'image' that is - totally off the wall and NOT something anyone may have thought off - 'Deliberately tried to make the cat OOF to achieve this kind of effect'. As to whether it works, perhaps is very subjective as it goes in some way in breaking some 'rules' hence thinking should it go as I said into OOTB. Personally I think photography should not be a straight jacket, and exploring, exchanging views, thoughts, interpretations is healthy and getting out of ones 'comfort zone' is good. As I also mentioned, I do hope Rachel chimes in, as she's be exposed to thinking about 'vision & PP' in relation to B/W and so better equipped with some fresh thoughts and advice.
To me B/W is a different way of thinking and converting a colour image into B/W has to be carefully thought about as it's about having a good Tonal range - Black to White. If you are going to think B/W then change your Picture style to B/W, it doesn't mean your RAW will not be in colour, but the Preview JPEG the camera makes of your RAW will perhaps help you see the range and if there is any glaring elements within the capture that you could address, similar to normal shooting, but the Contrast will IMHO be greater.
BTW perhaps 'Ghostly Serval' may be more appropriate?
Hi Steve -- I do change the picture style to monochrome while shooting BW , as it gives a correct picture of the outcome. I thought to title it with a word ghost but then thought it would be almost same titles back to back .
Really like the concept behind this one. The black and white treatment works quite well. Shots like these are not about the detail and thinking outside the box. I like it.
Hi Haseeb - I'm away on my girls' weekend this weekend and actually just played with some blurs but of fall foliage and colors. They are hard to capture and after shooting a few hundred my guess is that maybe I'll keep between 10 and 20. They won't be everyone's cuppa - the same with any b&w or blur or panning image. For me, with your image, the op does not work and I am curious why you would clone a couple of grass blades but not the ones on the body. Steve's rp is better to me but still not really working. I think I would have gone for rim light or blur but not both. In the field I probably would have tried for the head sharp, panning and then if the rim light was there maybe a conversion. Again, for the best b&w look for dark images against lighter bg or vice versa. Definitely keep experimenting.
Over the years I have often noted that photographers who are experimenting and trying new things are usually the best ones. I agree that this particular image doesn't 'work' for reasons already covered however I can clearly get what you were trying to achieve and you are not far off at all imho.
Haseeb you have my upvote! I like that the serval's outline is clearly visible and to me this shows the elusive nature of the cat.
If the foliage was sharp and in-focus the concept would have been more lost, IMHO.
But yes - not everyone's taste - well done for thinking out of the box here.
Serval !
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