Masai Mara; 7D; EF300mm f4L IS; 1.4 converter; f9.5; 1/250; ISO 400. I would have preferred this with the elephants on the horizon and wonder if others feel that the hills in the background are distracting. All C & C gratefully received.
Elephants
Masai Mara; 7D; EF300mm f4L IS; 1.4 converter; f9.5; 1/250; ISO 400. I would have preferred this with the elephants on the horizon and wonder if others feel that the hills in the background are distracting. All C & C gratefully received.
wow, what a beautiful image , I am loving trunk position of baby elphants
TFS
Hilary,
This is a very nice composition but on my monitor the sky looks very noisy, if you have PS use Magic Wand to select this area and reduce the noise.
Thanks Harshad. Ken, you are right about the noise. I processed the image and ran noise ninja and it looked fine but I had a colour cast which I didn't like. So I reprocessed the image and forgot nn. I'll run it again ... thanks for the reminder.
Hi Hilary
I have to admit the horizon does detract from image ,also needs some ccw rotation
baby elephants seem un sharp which @f9.5 and on same focal plane as mum they should not be.So might be some camera shake ..or just effect of TC on your lens..
Hi Hilary, Peter beat me to the same comment re the horizon. Simple to amend if you feel you want too?;)
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Peter, I have to agree and was hesitant about posting it but I think in the end it is worth getting other opinions. I would put my money on some possible camera shake as it was hand held (I was getting cocky :() Appreciate the views.
Steve, our posts crossed. I could fix the horizon but I don't think the clarity of the elephants warrants it. Sometimes you just have to say "next time", although the exercise of fixing problems helps you learn better techniques and also makes you more careful to get it right in camera next time. Maybe I'll do something different with it and post in OOTB! ;)
Excellent capture. I'm with Harshad: I love the trunks on the little ones, especially the lead.
In addition to leveling the horizon, I would probably darken the sky and sea, and also brighten the subjects a bit and sharpen. I used Topaz
Detail to sharpen; it's very good for bringing out little crinkly details like this.
Thanks David, it certainly has lifted the animals. I'll have a look at the software.
David, I've just downloaded Topaz for the free trial so will see if I have fun with it.
Hills in BG? Is that what DT called the sea? (Umm, sea, not in the Mara!)
The mid BG makes me think of water, but it wasn't? Hills?
The eles are in the sun so why is sky so blah gray? Storm coming? Yet I see a whisp of clouds in it? DT's repost made the sky bluer. Why?
All questions - no answers :)
Tom
Tom, I'll try to answer your questions.
No sea, just hills but sometimes when people don't know an area it can be a similar hue so I don't worry to much with that detail.
The far hills were in shadow from the heavy storm coming in. Sun shining on the nearer distance. The sky is very blah, not too many clouds just overall black. I have other photos taken earlier and later where I managed to catch the clouds before the storm. Just luck.
I think David's use of Topaz has changed the contrast and colour which is why I've downloaded a trial.
:D
Thanks Hilary.
The Mara landscape fools you in many places, the plains are flat (I think?), but the back hills curve round so the horizon can (usually) look crooked. As you know, you've been there often I think.
Assuming (wrong) that it was sky, I reworked your first original. All done in PS. The sky is a new sky dropped in. Saturation added and little sharpening, here it is -
.
.
But now it is I suppose is rather "fake"?
Tom
ps - but hey, it could happen like that!!!
Last edited by Tom Graham; 04-16-2010 at 01:35 AM. Reason: ps added
Hi Tom
The Forum is where we share images, thoughts and aspirations and where members are helpful, constructive and sometimes try to illustrate from time to time how an image might be improved for the future. In addition, accompanying the reposted image there should be polite dialogue in the correct, friendly manner, especially to the author.
Therefore, please in future, have respect to both the author and past/future readers of any thread.
Thank you
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Steve - Sure, I agree. But I fail to see what I said to offend OP or anyone. The only criticism I made "rather fake" is to my own (re)work. Could you, or anyone, please help me out by telling me exactly what is, or words, offensive about my posts? Seriously.
Tom
Thanks Tom :) will PM you later today.
cheers
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hey Steve & Tom, I didn't take any offence. I've known Tom for many years and have shared photos and ideas and although we don't agree on all things I'm happy to take any ideas, comments and experiments. He could improve his taste in music, but I guess that is for another forum! :cool:
Thanks for pointing that out. A useful lesson in this detail: Viewers who (like me) don't know the area might mistake the blurryOriginally Posted by Hilary Hann
background hills for the sea -- in which case, the picture will look tilted. So, in this case, it's probably a good idea to level the "horizon."
I made a small curves adjustment on the elephants and foreground, so that increased the contrast and brought the colors out a bit more.I think David's use of Topaz has changed the contrast and colour which is why I've downloaded a trial.
Thanks David. I do appreciate the trouble you went to with my image.
Hilary, great sighting, and the trunks in the air add to the image. I like your perspective here too.
wow some nice lessons to learn here. I do like the image Hilary and love the two young ones in front.
I like David's repost and think the sky could be naturally tweaked to get somewhere close to Tom's "dropped-in" sky.
Yes, easy with a curves adjustments.
Like the repost, at least it looks ok on my iPhone! :)
The download version of topaz doesn't work on my processor, I need intel so not sure what my next move will be. Thanks.
Sky came out nice Dave. You masked or selected so applied curve worked only on sky, right?
Tom
Exactly. I already had the mask, so it only took a few extra seconds.
The horizon line doesn't bother me, I like the fact that the little ones are underneath it. Because of how straight it is though, I think it needs to be leveled even if it is actually slightly sloping. I also don't see the elephants as that unsharp although I admittedly have a preference for softer images. Some selective sharpening on just them seems to work.
Tom, I would persevere with the sky as posted with David rather than a dropped in sky for the following reason;
if the image shows enough potential that I would consider entering it into any of the award competitions run here in Oz, I can't alter the image beyond basic darkroom work. I.e. can't clone out stuff, add stuff etc. but I can use curves, dodging, levels, sharpening etc. Not saying that I think that this is up to scratch for a professional competition but that is my reasoning with wildlife. Having said that, for landscape categories anything goes so happy to drop in sky.
Thanks Steve, I'm never sure how sharp to take an image and I find it depends a lot on the subject matter and then it is easy to misjudge.
Hi Hilary - I certainly agree about adding elements to images for wildlife competitions. And agree that they do allow what you said. So, with a mask and curves like David did, then with a soft dodge tool you could ("legally") dodge in clouds. Seems not that different than dropping in clouds, but I guess the line must be drawn somewhere.
I also agree with you about sharpening. And feel that many times too much emphasis and importance is given to it (because easiest thing to criticize?). Not saying I don't like'm sharp, just that we can go overboard about it, IMHO.
Looking forward to seeing more safari images from you (as I'm sure you are from me :))
Tom
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