Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: William Walker on June 17, 2013, 03:30:42 pm
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I have just got back from the weekend at Tembe Elephant Park - home of the largest "Tuskers" in Southern Africa. I was really hoping to see "Isilo" - the current King. No luck there!
I had to settle for this lovely old chap in the lovely soft afternoon light.
William
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Very good B&W rendering. A lot of mid-tones, well controlled highlights. I would just check that you have some deep blacks as well (by adjusting the black point).
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Massive animal… I like how the elephant is detached from the darker background.
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Very good B&W rendering. A lot of mid-tones, well controlled highlights. I would just check that you have some deep blacks as well (by adjusting the black point).
+1
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Lovely photo, perhaps a bit less contrast?
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Lovely photo, perhaps a bit less contrast?
It is funny you say that Peter, it looks fine on my monitor at home, but definitely too contrasty on the one at work.
Slobodan, I just checked by black point again: the groin and lower belly area gives me a black point (only just!) on Lightroom setting (-27), his left-hand tusk the white. Do you reckon I should go more?
Thank you, as always, for your comments!
William
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... Slobodan, I just checked by black point again: the groin and lower belly area gives me a black point (only just!) on Lightroom setting (-27), his left-hand tusk the white. Do you reckon I should go more?..
Maybe not. I would, however, try with a 0.10 or 0.20 less overall exposure. I would also try some vignetting. You can try all that and still come back to this version, but I think it is worth trying.
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It is funny you say that Peter, it looks fine on my monitor at home, but definitely too contrasty on the one at work.
Yes, there's always the "monitor problem" when viewing images online. I think of elephants as huge masses of gray, with no black and no white. Many grays. As my monitor showed it, your photo tended more away from subtle grays and more toward blacks and whites. I bet you could get a gorgeous B&W print from this!
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I think of elephants as huge masses of gray, with no black and no white.
The elephants at Tembe are darker than most I have seen in other places.
This picture is untouched. (They also have longer tails than I have seen elsewhere - check my original post!)
William
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The elephants at Tembe are darker...
That's why I suggested a slight underexposure for your OP photo ;)
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Elephants often reflect their surroundings.
In Etosha they are almost white - thats because the whole area is undergirded with limestone and when they cover themsleves in dust and mud they are literally whitewashing themsleves.
In other places where the iron content of the soils is high the elephants take on a brownish-reddish tinge for the same reason.
Tembe is on a coastal flood plain with a preponderance of clay, once one gets away from the coastal sand dunes.
Tembe is also a wet place with not a lot of dust - relative to many other savannah elephant habitats.
Tony Jay