Bucking the trend - no spots here

[Hilary Hann]

I have to come clean … I don't really like buffaloes and the running joke whenever I'm on safari is whether we stop for them or keep driving to find something more interesting like impalas. :eek:

So my challenge was to photograph buffaloes in such a way to give an interesting image to me.

This was taken in the late afternoon and I underexposed the original capture to just show mainly highlights. There was another buffalo in the background but fortunately no light reflected from him. I processed this colour image in CS3 and used the burn tool to burn in the background a little more.

Interested in thoughts.

7D; 100-400 @ 400; ISO400; f5.6; 1/1000

[Harshad Barve]

I am loving the play of light here , excellent
TFS

[Grant Atkinson]

Like this very much Hilary...the edges of light really accentuate the shape of his horns. Dark tones give the image much impact.
Great shot
grant

[Hilary Hann]

Thank you Harshad and Grant, appreciate the comments.

[Marc Mol]

I really like this edge of light type format and your to be congratulated for this attempt Hilary.
Something tells me it's not quite there, perhaps because it's appears a little soft or not enough light hitting the right areas, I can't quite put my finger on it? The edge lighting on those horns are very effective.
TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Well Hilary I don't think anyone can say you are 'predictable' in your style of posting, great to see your diverse choice of thinking and creative approach to your photography.

It certainly has imapact and good that you have retained colour rather than going direct to B/W which i feel would make it flat. Personally I think it needs some more detail to define and sculpt the head, if you know what I mean. Not fine detail, just some more form if that is possible? Without seeing the original it is difficult to assess how far you can go, but hope that with more time and some selective thinking and PS work, this could be a very interesting image.

Might suggest posting in OOTB too for an alternative POV.

Very pleased you posted this.

TFS
Steve

[Todd Frost]

I've been coming back to this since you posted it Hilary. I like the image but there is something missing for me. It might be the eye, not quite sure. Good thinking on this image.
TFS
Todd

[peter delaney]

You are definitely on to a winner here.. agree with Steve about keeping it colour..

also agree with Todd about something missing...

my suggestion is to flip the image ...then would use curves to darken image even further.. to me looks more dramatic that way...

great image what ever u decide

[Hilary Hann]

Thank you for the honest feedback. I agree with the comments and suggestions so will go back and see what more is on the original file. I'm trying very hard to avoid any non dark room techniques just to see what I can do without resorting to some of my favorite Photoshop tools. Ah the pain! I will try the suggestions Steve and Peter gave which may give the missing edge others have alluded to. If I don't repost the reasons will be obvious!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

all been said Hilary - love the play of light and agree with Steve and Todd that there's something missing to bump it from great to extraordinary...

would love to see the repost!

[Paul Taylor]

Hilary... These are shots in the dark (excuse pun) and just to add to the above. Could part of what is missing be something to take us from the nose up to the horn on rhs, or from the eye/shoulder up the back? I'm also wondering whether the fairly central composition of the head is right.

More radically, have you tried a vertical crop that excludes the rhs of the image completely and puts the buffalo's nose right on the third (not for ROT compliance - just to explain where I am thinking of a crop)? That gives an image with a lot more detail per square inch - but probably not what you were looking for.

All questions are rhetorical. I was just surfing by and this got me thinking.

I'm also seeing a bit of purple (Fringing? Doesn't seem likely.) that may be my side only.

Love the shot anyway - as-is, cropped a bit, or flipped. You certainly achieved your goal of getting an interesting image.

[Hilary Hann]

Hey Paul, that crop is exactly what I started with but thought it might be too radical!! Glad someone saw the same thing I did. There is a colour cast on the ear fringe which is the light coming through the hair and I reduced the saturation on that area only. I left a bit so that it didn't become too monotone. Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.