Loved the mood and the texture with Nik Silver Efex
Details:
1DIV/500mm/f4/1/200/ISO1000 from Kaziranga NP,India
Maybe I need to extend the canvas on LHS a wee bit
Loved the mood and the texture with Nik Silver Efex
Details:
1DIV/500mm/f4/1/200/ISO1000 from Kaziranga NP,India
Maybe I need to extend the canvas on LHS a wee bit

Well, image been up over 24 hours with 37 views and 0 comments. Too many "lookers" and not enough "thinkers" ?![]()
I think you captured well the general heavy rain look. And the B&W adds to it. Good feel and texture. But I would rather have a 3/4 head/shoulder POV rather than this 3/4 rear view. At least its head is turned towards us.
Also not more room LHS but RHS, and bottom? And would prefer not the horizontal white strip (water puddle?).
Tom
Last edited by Tom Graham; 04-13-2012 at 01:23 PM.
Thanks Tom
As its a full frame, I tried extending the canvas a wee bit and cloning out the water puddle. But my PP skills are mediocre at best.
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Hi Saurav, having a slow SS has helped in conveying the scene & conditions, with the rain streaks in the BKG. I do find it's all a bit tight in frame, top, bottom and to the RHS, however, extending the canvas to the LHS will not help, so if there is more room all round then perhaps posting the FF version may help, where we can suggest an alternative crop? Also I feel the blacks in the shadow areas to dense, clogging any finer detail, so perhaps you could lift some of those areas. I don't have an issue regarding the stance/pose or HA, as it illustrates the 'armour plating' look/form of this awesome character. If you are uneasy with your PS skills, then perhaps just toning down the bright line of the water in the BKG might be easier, although personally I don't have a big issue with it, but it appears in the RP it looks good. You may also find that PS can give you an alternative and more control in converting to B/W.
Well done.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

Good work on cloning out water puddle.
As it is rainy day here in (usually) beautiful sunny southern California, I'm stuck inside with but basically my PC, TV, lots of good books, potato chips and beer. Hmm, life could be tougher. Anyway, with all these choices I decided to play some with your re-posted image. Bit more canvass bottom and right, cropped some on left. But not too much crop because rain/mud important part of image. And some emphasis on head. So, FWIW, take it anyway you will -
Tom
Good of you to go out photographing in such heavy rain. You captured a different look this way. I like the glow on the head & back of the rhino. I agree with Steve's suggestions and think you can try a variety of processing effects with this image.
Gorgeous mood captured here Saurav!
I like the contrasty B&W conversion, and the streaky rain adds heaps. Would just try and lift extremest shadow detail as Steve mentioned. I too wish for more space on the RHS and bottom.
Would you mind posting the full frame colour version as shot so I can have a go at this conversion?![]()
Thanks Tom for the repost. I get the drift.
Here you go Morkel
The full frame direct unedited conversion from RAW to jpeg
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Thanks Saurav.
Here's my version - did a VERY quick job. Would like to work on it more to bring out the raindrops a bit more, but this I feel works better in terms of tonal range and contrast on the rhino itself...what do you think?
Given the treeline at the top in the BG - I too cropped it out.
First I ran Color Efex Tonal Contrast
Then Silver Efex and played around with some of the settings - think I ran a red filter.
Then did some (sloppy) selective dodging and burning on the rhino...
Hi Saurav, thanks for the above. I like the grityness of the OP, just felt you could have opened the blacks up a bit more as I said. I extended the RHS & below marginally and recropped, but tried to retain the detail in the areas I mentioned. I pushed the BKG a bit more in the hope it emphasised the mood a bit more too. Not great I know but food for thought, hope Morkel will chip in too. Cropped to 800px wide to avoid any more IQ loss.
BTW, all done in PS (avoiding NIK SEFx) and on the laptop, not my preferred tool.
Cheers
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Bingo Morkel, both posting at identical timing, cool.![]()
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

I also think the blurred rain is fundamental to the picture and anything to make it obvious is good. In my repost I tried to emphasize rain with sharpening but then had to mask out the rhino. I was somewhat surprised to see the original color image and how faint/obscure the rain is in it.
Tom
Really love your repost Morkel.
Thanks a lot