How to best post process this lot.

stick-dan

Hi guys any ideas/thoughts about these and how to post process them?

N.B there was no processing at all done just straight from the camera.

Thanks in advance:)

stick-dan

**bump**

could really use some advice please

oshead

They are nice images. Particulary the elephant one. Composition is good on these, except the Owl. They are all well lit except the Tiger.

Just one thing though. Why post for C&C if these are not the finished article? In camera RAW is not very flattering to the images.

Dave OS

Edit: My apologies. I just read the subject again. Would it not be better to do some PP on these and then asking for opinions? Rather than leaving it open ended, how should PP be done.

Ballyman

The gorilla looks like he is just after dining on his own sh1t!!

stick-dan

oshead wrote: »

They are nice images. Particulary the elephant one. Composition is good on these, except the Owl. They are all well lit except the Tiger.

Just one thing though. Why post for C&C if these are not the finished article? In camera RAW is not very flattering to the images.

Dave OS

what exactly is wrong with the owl, it's the one that is getting the most attention so it is? the tiger was at 4pm so not

I wanted advice on how to process these hence why i posted these.

oshead

Sorry, I just updated my original post.

It's a nice owl, and the exposure is controlled quite well. Not easy to do with such contrasts of white on dark bg. He's just too central in the image for my liking. That's all.

Dave OS

Crispin

I think elephant would make a nice BW conversion.

The owl is nice but i would crop from both sides to make a "squarer" image

Tiger needs lightning up a bit, pic seems a bit dark.

challengemaster

Stick-dan: I hope you don't mind, but I just got a feeling about the tiger shot and wanted to Post process it myself...



This is how I'd process it anyway.. It's a cracker of a shot btw.

leche solara

As I suggested in pixie, I have redone your white owl with a light touch of topaz adjust which I think brings out the feathers more. I still wouldn't be happy with the overblown bit on the forehead - bloody bird is too white. Guess you'll just have to go back to the zoo and get another picture.

stick-dan

Guys thanks.

@ challenge master, what way did you go about that b/w conversion if you don't mind me asking , i've been going mad trying to get a technique down all week. it's driving me mental. It's looking amazing in B&W

@leche solara apart from the blown out part the topaz filter added in looks great, what was it a spicify?

these are great guys thanks. Hope to get your answers on these.

challengemaster

stick-dan wrote: »

Guys thanks.

@ challenge master, what way did you go about that b/w conversion if you don't mind me asking , i've been going mad trying to get a technique down all week. it's driving me mental. It's looking amazing in B&W

Np dude I just saw it and had to

Btw, It looked amazing anyway - It's a great shot. That bit of PP just helped bring it out So far, I'd say its probably the best Wildlife shot I've seen this year

Ehm, How I did it...sorry, that's classified info...

No, not really

Imported it into LR 2

• Used a Preset 'golden girl' - It makes it a bit..golden-y, not B&W yet
• I removed a bit of Vignette (already part of the preset)
• Then did a greyscale conversion
• Then really, I just played around with the colour sliders a bit until I was happy with it
• I upped the blacks then a bit, and added some fill light and recovery
• Up the brightness and contrast, and set Clarity to +46

Exported as a .tiff and opened in PS CS4

• Duplicated the Background
• Ran a high-pass filter (7.0 pixel radius) and set the layer to soft light
• Add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer (brightness 65, contrast 99)
• Hide it using a layer mask, then spot paint in the areas I wanted it on (eyes, ear, nose, teeth)
• Then add a levels adjustment layer just to make sure it's all ok
• Export as a JPEG (Quality: 12)

/edit: One thing I forgot to add. There's no one B&W technique really. The only thing really similar in every B&W conversion, is making it B&W....after that, there's so much variety.. You can really do so much with it. I'd suggest against getting a sole technique in your head and just doing it, again, and again, and again. That tends to make all your photos the same, and you don't really learn anything, or get to be creative...and what is photography but a thing of creativity.

kgiller

I had a go at the elephant for fun.

stick-dan

challengemaster wrote: »

Np dude I just saw it and had to

Btw, It looked amazing anyway - It's a great shot. That bit of PP just helped bring it out So far, I'd say its probably the best Wildlife shot I've seen this year

Ehm, How I did it...sorry, that's classified info...

No, not really

Imported it into LR 2

• Used a Preset 'golden girl' - It makes it a bit..golden-y, not B&W yet
• I removed a bit of Vignette (already part of the preset)
• Then did a greyscale conversion
• Then really, I just played around with the colour sliders a bit until I was happy with it
• I upped the blacks then a bit, and added some fill light and recovery
• Up the brightness and contrast, and set Clarity to +46

Exported as a .tiff and opened in PS CS4

• Duplicated the Background
• Ran a high-pass filter (7.0 pixel radius) and set the layer to soft light
• Add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer (brightness 65, contrast 99)
• Hide it using a layer mask, then spot paint in the areas I wanted it on (eyes, ear, nose, teeth)
• Then add a levels adjustment layer just to make sure it's all ok
• Export as a JPEG (Quality: 12)

really, i know it's been a short year but thanks man that means a lot and i mean a lot. cheers, least i know i'm going in the right direction now.

Dammit i need to obtain lightroom i've had people telling me that for weeks now.Thank you so much for that information.

stick-dan

@kgiller that looks cool dude, did you use lr or ps?

sheesh

hey stick dan here is a link to a tutorial to convert images to b/w I like the results


inn general I would up the contrast and the saturation

kgiller

stick-dan wrote: »

@kgiller that looks cool dude, did you use lr or ps?

Lightroom. WOW presets and messing around with contrast, blacks, shadows etc.

stick-dan

Thank you. getting some great tips and advice plus ideas here, keep it coming im a learning sponge

GhostInTheRuins

Great tiger shot you have there! I had a bit of a mess with him too



By the way, that gorilla is a badass :cool:

oshead

I reduced the noise with Noiseware Pro, then corrected the exposure with Topaz, then wacked it with FM's Velviavision, then sharpened with Focus Magic.

stick-dan

CM's just looks right i must say so myself.