Wildlife Crits and suggestions requested.

[Diane Darlow]

I would love you to suggest how I could make these better.

[Diane Darlow]

I just love this one, and want to keep the water colour look without it looking too blown.

[Diane Darlow]

Taken through the gap between trunk and legs of an elephant.

[Diane Darlow]

Any C&C requested, especially how would others crop this one

[Diane Darlow]

Last one.

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Diane and welcome to CiC.

Can you please let me know if you have done any post processing or are these shots straight out of the camera?

[Diane Darlow]

Just cropped, Peter. I was hoping for some tips on how to do post processing where they would look as stunning as the photos others submit - or am I just using lousy settings.

[jeeperman]

The most help I can be at this time is.......don't get eaten!

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Diane,

I have had two trips to Africa and love the place. My last trip was through Namibia and Botswana.

You asked for assistance on post production to help make the images stronger, like the ones you see here on CiC.

May I make some shooting suggestions first? I note that you use aperture priority (which I do) but you use Spot metering. This is very hard to control when you are starting off and even when you have plenty of experience. I think in the case of # 2 you may have metered off the lioness’s nose our mouth and the camera has seen this as a really dark image and has overexposed to compensate. If you look at the histogram it is all in the top half and the highlights are so blown out they are lost. I can see you are trying to adjust exposures with Exposure Compensation but you need to meter the exact same place with spot metering for this to be effective and over the distance and given animals move this is really hard. Try changing to matrix meter and doing the same adjustments with EC to get a more balanced histogram – no blown highlights or blocked in shadows. If you want a bright (or high key effect) you can do this in post production but it is hard to do in camera without losing detail in the highlights. Better to good a good exposure you can adjust for the effect you want.

Composition. The compositions are a bit messy with a lot of branches, reeds, etc covering the faces of the animals. Try and get clean shots to work with.

The images themselves.
# 1 is a little underexposed but can be corrected in post production. The placement of the lioness in the middle of the frame does not add interest and maybe better if she was placed off to the side or you shot/cropped the image into a portrait format.
#2 is way overexposed, as discussed. This is a strong composition and it is a pity you have lost so much detail that we just cannot get back.
# 3 is well exposed. The window framing is a good idea but there is too much black for the image and the geese are moving out of the frame. It would be stronger if they were moving into the frame from the left.
# 4 is well exposed and composed. The reed cutting the jackals’ face is very distracting.
# 5 is well exposed and I can see what you are trying to show but I need to see more of the face of the lioness. The eyes are important to show intent but the right eye is blocked by a twig and nearly out of the frame.

These are just my initial thoughts and others may want to jump in here. Can you tell me what post processing software you have available to use?

[Diane Darlow]

I only have picasa. I downloaded GIMP but cant find help to work it. I have access to my son's photoshop so for the best shots I will visit him with my flash drive! He will "tutor" me in how to use it, because it seems as if one should have a licence to drive such a program!

I was so cross with myself when I saw # 2 - so there is no way of getting it back?! #5 - because the lionesses one eye was not visible and when I cropped it bigger, the picture was spoilt and uninteresting.

Peter, do me a favour. Crop that top one for me. When I cropped it to 1.3s rule etc, I found it picture less interesting. What would you do? - BTW I appreciate your comments.

[jeeperman]

Diane, I am also new here and somewhat of a PP novice. Your picture unfortunately did lose some of the detail from over exposure. While I am sure there are many here that can better my attemp, here is a quick and dirty go at it. I use Gimp myself and corrected the white balance, I then in brightness and contrast lowered the brightness and raised contrast slightly. I then gave it a light sharpening.
I did this just to give you an idea of the possabilities, I can remove it if you would rather.

[Peter Ryan]

Diane, I am also new here and somewhat of a PP novice. Your picture unfortunately did lose some of the detail from over exposure. While I am sure there are many here that can better my attemp, here is a quick and dirty go at it. I use Gimp myself and corrected the white balance, I then in brightness and contrast lowered the brightness and raised contrast slightly. I then gave it a light sharpening.
I did this just to give you an idea of the possabilities, I can remove it if you would rather.

Hi Paul,

I also had a quick go and could not do any better. Pity really because this had the potential to be a great shot.

[jeeperman]

Agreed Peter, good to know I was not to far off.

[Peter Ryan]

I only have picasa. I downloaded GIMP but cant find help to work it. I have access to my son's photoshop so for the best shots I will visit him with my flash drive! He will "tutor" me in how to use it, because it seems as if one should have a licence to drive such a program!

I was so cross with myself when I saw # 2 - so there is no way of getting it back?! #5 - because the lionesses one eye was not visible and when I cropped it bigger, the picture was spoilt and uninteresting.

Peter, do me a favour. Crop that top one for me. When I cropped it to 1.3s rule etc, I found it picture less interesting. What would you do? - BTW I appreciate your comments.

I had a look at cropping it in portrait format but there is not enough left in the image to make it interesting, as you say.

For post processing you might try downloading an interesting program HERE. They have a freebie download version (STARTER EDITION) that looks and feels like Photoshop has great step by step assistance on screen and if your son can show you some moves on Photoshop they will easily translate to this program. I think the freebie download will do you fine for a long time.

[Sahil]

Some level settings....

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Hi,






(All worked for You w.Adobe PSE)



Have a good year!

[Diane Darlow]

You guys are being so helpful! I see you made my pic sharper! How did you do that? I press the "sharper" button on picasa and nothing happens! What did you to. I saw that the reed had been photoshopped away.

Thanks for the advice on the point focussing. I have left it on that in case I see a bird against the sky and wondered why I was getting different exposures in each photo without AEB.

Didnt realise how great it would be to have the community C&Cing my pics. Thanks

[Peter Ryan]

You guys are being so helpful! I see you made my pic sharper! How did you do that? I press the "sharper" button on picasa and nothing happens! What did you to. I saw that the reed had been photoshopped away.

Thanks for the advice on the point focussing. I have left it on that in case I see a bird against the sky and wondered why I was getting different exposures in each photo without AEB.

Didnt realise how great it would be to have the community C&Cing my pics. Thanks

Hi Diane,

I gave you a false lead on Phot PLus. I have edited the first post.

Try HERE .

[jiro]

Diane, this is how I would imagine your first image if I will do some post-processing to it.



I cloned some parts, cloned out some, some selective dodging and burning, increase color saturation, some sharpening, and that's it. I tried not to let the tiger become too prominent on the post processing because I believe it is trying to blend on the surrounding. I think he is still in the process of stalking a prey in here.

[Donald]

Diane

The GIMP is a steep learning curve, without the extensive resources to support learning that the Adobe suite of software programmes has. By far and away the best source of support for learning the GIMP, in my opinion, is this, but it still requires a lot of hours on your part of make all the mistakes, start again, etc etc. Well worth it if you are able to commit to doing so.