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Thread: African sunset

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    Default African sunset

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    Need honest critiques on this one - not sure whether it works or not. During my recent visit to Southern Africa enjoyed a typical dusty sunset with a few elephants in the distance. Tried to capture it, taken RAW advice as to improve (or reject it) would be appreciated

    Nikon D300S 300 F2.8
    ISO 1250 1/6400 @ f8 -1/3 EV

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    I like the idea. A closer crop to frame the elephants more to the left would have been great.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Cheers,
    Sabyasachi

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    Hi Deborah, I think this is an excellent shot. You have done well at getting the elephants silhouetted in good postures, and they are separate from each other. I also really like the shadows in the dust, and the forest background feel. I wish I had a shot like this. If anything, I agree with Sabyasachi about cropping a bit from the LHS, as well as the bottom. Wonderful shot, and thanks for sharing.
    cheers
    Grant

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    Thanks Grant - you're the culprit that encouraged me to shoot in these situations, now I need to improve my PS skills!

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    Debra,
    you got an image with good potential.
    Would you mind posting the original? That will give as a clear idea and help in making a better comp with respect to subject placement.

    -Sid

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    Deoborah

    great shot, has lots of potential... imo I would crop the sky out totally , and go for pano crop....lighten FKG a little and increase the blacks in ellies so stand out more

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    Sid, what I posted is the shot I got without manipulation, just resized for posting. Peter, I'm playing around with your suggestions, a significant improvement, shall repost later for further ideas. I use LR for most of my processing as I tend not to play around too much but posted this as I think it needed more advanced processing than the basics.

    Thanks for the advice.

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    Peter, This is a repost with a pano crop and some adjustments in levels. I don't think this works, the crop has to be too drastic, the elephant sillouettes are soft (it was very dusty) and the darks in the left of the image too near in tone to the left hand ellie.

    Was worth a try, need to improve my skills in this type of setting, can't wait to get back to Africa!!
    Last edited by Deborah Harrison; 08-14-2010 at 06:16 PM.

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    Love the ORIG. Do not care at all for the image in Pane #8 for many reasons.

    My two cents is my repost. :)
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    I like both images.

    Just a quick question, am having a guess that this was shot at Airstrip 2 pan in Makalolo concession?

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    This has real potential Deborah, and agree with Peter's comments.

    Quote Originally Posted by peter delaney View Post
    Deoborah

    great shot, has lots of potential... imo I would crop the sky out totally , and go for pano crop....lighten FKG a little and increase the blacks in ellies so stand out more
    Not perfect by any means, but I think this was more what Peter had in mind.



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    Thanks Artie and Marc - both of your images are a significant improvement on the original but I personally prefer Artie's which separates the silhouettes of the ellies from the shadows on the left. What adjustments did you use to do this? - it reflects what I was trying to capture. Taking shots against the sun like this is a real challenge and I play around with exposures but obviously some skilled post processing is needed to make the most of it.

    Yes Russell - this was shot when we were staying in the Makololo concession!! - really enjoyed my brief stay in Zimbavwe.

    Again, thanks everyone for your advice

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    Hi Deb, I tried several methods of selecting the pachyderms and nothing worked till I went to the magnetic lasso and even that took some care and time but I was determined. Once I had a good selection I put it on its own layer and then pulled the curve down a bit and followed that up by adding some BLACK to the BLACKS. When I was done it was overdone--too black and cut-out looking so I reduced the opacity, and voila!
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    I like Marc's crop and repost also.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Thanks, I tried to do the same but with less expertise - am looking forward learning a few more tricks with you next summer in Galapagos:cool:. Marc has created a very different image with a feeling of mystery and elephants emerging from the haze.

    I appreciate all the work you and all other moderators and members put into making this a unique gathering of photographers - I learn as much, if not more, from looking at other people's images and commenting as I do when posting mine - it's a fantastic community.

    Your efforts are not unappreciated!

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    You are most welcome. We will have lots of time for Photoshop on the trip next summer. Lots. All that you will need to do is sit next to me. :)
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Beautiful image Deborah!

    I can almost smell the dust. Love the warmth of this picture and Arthur's repost is an improvement.

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