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Thread: Elephant ( Kruger National Park)

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Default Elephant ( Kruger National Park)

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    Dear Friends,

    Hope you had a good week-end

    Here is an image of a young elephant taken in the Kruger Park in May this year. Apart from a magic three days spent with a Wild Dog pack we have not had any spectacular sightings. Saw a few leopards but could not get close to them... and picked up some lion tracks but were not lucky enough to see the pride. Hopefully more luck in September...

    Techs:

    Nikon D4
    Nikon 70-200 mm F2.8
    Focal length 120 mm
    ISO 2000
    F4.5
    1/400s

    Processed in LR and PSCC. I welcome any comments, be it technical or otherwise. Really appreciate your time to view

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela, I looked at the image without reading your text, I asked myself what setting would I have used and I think I would have started at f5.6 and also taken some at f8 just to see any difference. The elephant shows good differential focus but I feel the tusks could have been a tad sharper, colours and tones look pretty much how I would recall them. I applied a luminosity mask pulling down the lights 4-6 I think this improves slightly but I think this is just personal preference.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Hello Jon,

    My thinking at the time was 'light is pretty bad, overcast, maybe I could get away with 1/400s, but no less'. Re tusks, they were slightly overexposed and I tried to fix that. And you could be right, they might be unsharp. I promise to have another look at this frame.

    Thank you so much for viewing and taking the time to comment, I so appreciate it. And you are always welcome to RP on my images

    Warnest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Gabriela, a lovely capture with some nice light. The framing works well and I do like the placement of the subject in frame with a slightly angle body posture. I think f/5.6 would have just given the edge, but then SS would have dropped, so push the ISO a bit more ie 3200. I might just pop a Gradute filter on the bottom third just to darken the FG a fraction more. The tusk no being sharp I don't think matters here Gabriela, as you want the the eye and top part of the trunk sharp, I think it might be slight movenet as the tip of the trunk isn't quite sharp and if the eye is sharp, the tip should be as it appears to be on the same plane of focus????

    Hope to see more.

    TFS
    Steve

    PS BTW your question about Animal Eye detection - the shot I sent through the other night (hush!!!), does not work on that subject, or Dolphins, plus Grant notice on Ele's too.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Thank you very much Steve,

    So glad you like the overall scene During my last trip to Kruger I tried to play around with various camera bodies and lenses, because I have been glued to the D5/500 combo for too long...such a pity, because I have various gear available.
    Back to the image, will add another graduate filter ( I think I already added one but maybe did not darken enough). Not so sure the tusks are unsharp, they were a little overexposed and in my efforts to fix that I must have done something that created this 'soft' appearance. I will check. If you wish to see the RAW I am happy to share it.

    Re. eye detection, we must chat again about that. I never thought it worked really well , very curious to hear more from you.

    PS. Where is Scruffy?

    Have a lovely evening,
    Gabriela Plesea

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