Ndutu Scene

[Tom Graham]

This taken Tanzania, Ndutu area, Feb 2011. From a small hill where we often stopped for box breakfast/lunch. A migration scene of sorts but maybe typical of zebras and wildebeest just wandering around feeding. I'm wanted a "animalscape" look to it. With the "classic" landscape technique of having foreground object(s) frame the distant image. Got that I think but something about color (too yellow?), or saturation, contrast, over sharpened, does not set right with me. Maybe just an average, ok, shot? Any ideas? All welcome.
A little cloning out of brush in foreground. Nikon D200, f9.5, 1/750, ISO 400, 70-300mm at 75mm.

thanks - Tom

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Tom, I like this including the foreground framing and distant scene of all the animals. I am not an experienced big animal shooter so will be interested to hear opinions of others. Seems to have been taken in harsh light - maybe that is causing some of your concern with the photo. well done overall.

[Lorant Voros]

It is pretty impressive to see so many animals together. I hope I can be there one day to see the migration. I like the way you framed the picture with the tree. I am on a laptop, so can't tell you much about the colors, but I like the general look of the image. DO you have any other of this series with more animals n the foreground?

[Morkel Erasmus]

I quite like this Tom! I like most wide-angle perspectives of wildlife in their environment. The tree was used nicely to frame the scene .
The light doesn't look harsh, just late morning in Africa (your EXIF confirms exposure time around 8am ).

I felt the "vista" needed some punch so I made a rough selection and added a bit of contrast there and also darkened the overall scene by a multiplied highlights layer set at 10% opacity.
What do you think?

PS: I must say this image has the best IQ of anything I've seen you post...you've set a standard now

[Tom Graham]

Thanks.
Allen - light was mid morning, full sun. Typical day in Africa.
Lorant - agree, I do wish for more critters in foreground, especially wildebeest.
Morkel - you GOT IT!! Love what you did. And I was thinking needed just the opposite . I'm not familiar with "multiplied highlights layer" to add contrast, will check it out.
Anyone - I wrote a summary trip report of that safari, Tanzania - Lake Manyara, Ndutu, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater for the Fodors travel site. Here is link to my report,
If you have any questions, be happy to answer -
http://www.fodors.com/community/africa-the-middle-east/trip-report-safari-2011-tanzania-.cfm

[Morkel Erasmus]

Morkel - you GOT IT!! Love what you did. And I was thinking needed just the opposite . I'm not familiar with "multiplied highlights layer" to add contrast, will check it out.

You are welcome.
By the way, the "multiplied highlights layer" is not used to add contrast (for that I used USM, 20%, 10px), it's used to enhance finite detail by toning down the brightest tones in the scene by tonality. It's basically a luminosity mask of the brights, layered and set to multiply mode and opacity adjusted to taste. Robert's got some great threads with the workflow included. For more about Luminosity Masks in general, check out Tony Kuyper's work at www.goodlight.us

[Tom Graham]

Thanks again Morkel.
I went to Tony Kuyper's site and went through his tutorial on Luminosity Masks. Great stuff, made it work. I have to check out Roberts tutorials.
Of course the key is knowing what the image needs. Like you did. I played with it but never quite got there like you. Thanks again.
Tom
ps - I'm having difficulty finding Robert's tutorials on this, can someone kindly give me a link.

[Brendan Dozier]

Tom, very nice vast wildlife scene you captured, and like the tree as frame. Morkel makes good suggestions, and repost looks good. Robert does have some great tutorials, but unfortunately I did not bookmark them, and am also having trouble finding the link on BPN.

[Harshad Barve]

Ndutu is one heck of place for sure , One lovely image
TFS

[Robert Amoruso]

You are welcome.
By the way, the "multiplied highlights layer" is not used to add contrast (for that I used USM, 20%, 10px), it's used to enhance finite detail by toning down the brightest tones in the scene by tonality. It's basically a luminosity mask of the brights, layered and set to multiply mode and opacity adjusted to taste. Robert's got some great threads with the workflow included. For more about Luminosity Masks in general, check out Tony Kuyper's work at www.goodlight.us

Here are the links:


Go to http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=20434 to see my Image Contrast and Tonal Range Tweaks, Part 1.

Go to http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...d.php?p=161168 to see my Image Contrast and Tonal Range Tweaks, Part 2.

And this is what you do.

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.