Another two very different shots

[Jeremy Roussak]

C&C?

[attachment=14553:ll.jpg] [attachment=14554:ll_2.jpg]

Jeremy

[RSL]

Jeremy, Actually I like them both. Who wouldn't like the little buck? And the light in the first shot is excellent, but that one seems to have two focal points: the trees and then the cliffs. The picture might be more striking if you made the trees the single focal point by subduing the cliffs. In any case, it's a pleasant scene.

[dalethorn]

C&C?
Jeremy

In the first, I think the cliffs look great.  I don't know how anyone feels about it technically, but I would not want to lose much of those cliffs.  The colors for the trees and cliffs seem to be a nice complement.  OTOH, the large bland area below the trees could be cropped some.

[wolfnowl]

I like the early morning light and the way it hits the trees in the first image.  That young buck is definitely cute too.

Mike.

[Ed Blagden]

Jeremy

Both nice shots.  For the trees and cliff, in addition to cropping out the OOF grass at the bottom, try reducing the blue luminance on the sky to make a polarizer effect.  Not sure if it will help, but worth a try.

Why did you decide to render the animal in B&W?  I would have thought colour would work better in this case.  In the B&W the tonality of the animal is quite similar to the background.

Where were the shots taken by the way?  Is that a Waterbuck?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Jeremy,

I agree with the suggestions to crop the out-of-focus grass in the first one. I love the light on the trees and the cliffs. If you try messing with the sky, make sure you don't lose the magical colors of cliffs and trees. I personally wouldn't touch the sky.

The buck is charming. I'd like to see it in color, too, but I might still prefer the B&W.

-Eric

[Jeremy Roussak]

I like the early morning light and the way it hits the trees in the first image.  That young buck is definitely cute too.

Thanks - it's early evening, in fact, about 20 minutes before the antelope.

Jeremy

Both nice shots.  For the trees and cliff, in addition to cropping out the OOF grass at the bottom, try reducing the blue luminance on the sky to make a polarizer effect.  Not sure if it will help, but worth a try.

Why did you decide to render the animal in B&W?  I would have thought colour would work better in this case.  In the B&W the tonality of the animal is quite similar to the background.

Where were the shots taken by the way?  Is that a Waterbuck?

I've cropped it a bit more at the bottom and it certainly does look better. I had tried increasing saturation and/or decreasing luminance on the sky, but neither really worked.

Here's the original colour version of the buck, which is a young male blue bull in Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan (I'd hoped to see a tiger or two but had no luck). The shot was taken at about 7:30 and although it was only 20 minutes after the sunlit photo, we were in shade and the light had completely gone: the exposure was 1/200, f5.6, ISO3200, Canon 100-400IS L at 400mm. As you can see, there wasn't very much colour anyway, and with the inevitable noise from the high ISO I thought B&W was the way to go.

[attachment=14570:bull_2.jpg]

Jeremy

[Ed Blagden]

As you can see, there wasn't very much colour anyway, and with the inevitable noise from the high ISO I thought B&W was the way to go.

[attachment=14570:bull_2.jpg]

Jeremy

And you were dead right.

[francois]

Thanks - it's early evening, in fact, about 20 minutes before the antelope.


I've cropped it a bit more at the bottom and it certainly does look better. I had tried increasing saturation and/or decreasing luminance on the sky, but neither really worked.

Here's the original colour version of the buck, which is a young male blue bull in Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan (I'd hoped to see a tiger or two but had no luck). The shot was taken at about 7:30 and although it was only 20 minutes after the sunlit photo, we were in shade and the light had completely gone: the exposure was 1/200, f5.6, ISO3200, Canon 100-400IS L at 400mm. As you can see, there wasn't very much colour anyway, and with the inevitable noise from the high ISO I thought B&W was the way to go.

[attachment=14570:bull_2.jpg]

Jeremy

I don't see anything in favour of the color version. So keep the B/W. It's true that B/W can save photos affected with high ISO noise, I use this technique very often.

By th way, I like your  both photos a lot. I agree with others that the out-of-focus foreground of the first photo should be cropped out.