In Love

[BenBotha]

The 2 were in love, necking and smooching all the time. Taken in Kgalagadi Transfrontier park

Canon 7D
Canon 100-400L IS
f 5.6
1/320
ISO 400

[Grant Atkinson]

Like the shape of this a lot Ben. Also interaction is always good to see. Good dof to get them both sharp, and processing looks good though there is a slightly bright area on the lower part of the left giraffes neck that might be worth toning down.
good shot and thanks for sharing
cheers
Grant

[Hilary Hann]

Ben, gorgeous colours in this image, I really find them attractive. Would agree with Grant re toning down the bright area of the neck if possible. Did you crop from a vertical or horizontal capture? I just wonder what variety of cropping options you might have. The facial expression on the furthest away giraffe is priceless.

[Rachel Hollander]

Ben - nicely captured with good dof and I like the comp with them coming out of the lower corner. Good suggestions by Grant and Hilary regarding bright spots.

TFS,
Rachel

[BenBotha]

Thanks for the comments. I do agree about the hot area on the neck.

Ben

[Robert Amoruso]

Thanks for the comments. I do agree about the hot area on the neck.

Ben

Ben,

Try this to tone down the highlights. As this does affect shadows too, just less so, some tweaking after may be in order.

Highlight selection:

1) Channels palette.
2) Ctrl key and click the RGB channel. Photoshop will now create a feathered selection around highlight pixels in the image. Photoshop has selected pixels based on how bright they are. Pure white pixels are selected 100%. Pure black pixels are not selected and pixels falling in-between those two extremes are selected based on a percentage of how close they are to white.

Adjustment:

1) Go back to layer palette - you will see selection.
2) Create BG copy.
3) Create mask on the BG copy from the selection.
4) Selection is grayscale shaded.
5) Change blending mode to Multiply.
6) Adjust opacity.

[BenBotha]

Robert,

Thanks for the suggestion, will certainly try it.

Ben

[Morkel Erasmus]

I would have said exactly what Robert said, Ben. Toning down the highlights will bring out more detail. I also feel the image is just a tad too yellow for me. I often find that when shooting in the Kalahari I need to go for a slightly cooler WB as the light reflecting off the sand tends to give red/yellow glows easily...

[DanWalters]

Love the interaction. Agree about toning down the yellow.