Bison doing the "rub" on a rock in open prairie of Wichita Ntl Wildlife Refuge,Ok.
Light colored grass creates an exposure problem.
Chas.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Camera serial number: 1120719490
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
Owner: Chas. Mc Rae
Date/Time: 2008:11:04 15:04:46
Copyright: Copyrighted
Shutter speed: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: -2/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 400
Lens: 100 to 400mm
Focal length: 210mm
Subject distance: 26 m
Image size: 800 x 533
Interesting behavior, a little tight in the frame. The correct post-processing could make this one a lot better. As it is, the yellows are over saturated and you could use some black on the midtones in Selective colors.
Main problem here is the strong side light. I had the same exposure challenge in Wyoming, and exposing to the right solved the problem. Your exposure was way to the right, with the highlights quite blown.
Here's what I did:
Adjusted exposure at conversion as much as I could.
Shadow/Highlight didn't work, so I selected the dark parts of the bison and put them into another layer. Lighten them in curves. Flattened the image.
Selected the whole bison now and inverted the selection to have the whole BG and foreground selected. Put that into a layer and use multiply as blending mode. Adjusted opacity and erased the effect from the rock, tat looked wuite yellowish.
Slightly burned the foreground and bg. Re-sized and sharpened for web.
Wow ! You certainly worked magic on the picture.
I only kept the pic to start with because of the "rubbing" since all my other rubbing shots were with post and street signs.
My exposure was for the Bison ,but I guess I overdid it. The light grass in the Wichita Mtns created constant problems especially with other than over the shoulder light.
I do not think I can duplicate your skills so next time I think Ill just walk out to get better light ,but if I remember correctly there were other Bison there.
I will keep your steps and try to use them myself ,but not much self confidence in my skills. I almost have to visualize them.
Nice capture of the behavior and I like the environmental elements. Looks like you had some nice colors to work with at that time. Tough to get the dark/light extremes. The PS skills will come the more you play with it. Nice work on the repost Fabs.
Charles,
Nice capture. One can see the difference that correct pp skills makes to the picture. But don't lose heart. Keep on capturing nice behaviour. You will pick up the pp skills, especially interacting with masters like Fabs in this place.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi