CindyHouk wrote:
I took this back in Sept of 2017 and since then have gained a lot more understanding of how to process photos, so I figured I would take this set and see what I can do to make them better.
1st pic is the original jpg, then the edits I played with. What do you think of the edits? And how would you edit this photo?
Everyone is welcome to download the original to edit and post so we can see how you would present it.
Nikon D5300, Tamron 150-600 -- 1/250, f.3, 600mm iso 500, shot at about 5:30 pm with the setting sun casting a yellowish glow.
I took this back in Sept of 2017 and since then ha... (
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Edit #2 has a PRESENCE to it because you made it B&W, and cropped, dramatically filling the space.
But, there is no real answer to your question beyond personal prejudices. For a good photo, the photographer herself has to decide what the pic is about. Otherwise, she is similar to a beginning musician soullessly playing music.
As examples, here are two takes on your pic (good catch, btw, with just right depth of field to focus on the elk while downplaying the fore-and backgrounds). One is emphasizing the elk’s grazing and hostile look it’s giving the intruder. For that, I cropped, used Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) in Photoshop to open up the exposure (Auto), but not to Auto the Color, which washed things out too much. Instead, did select Color/Auto, but moved the Blue/Yellow slider to bring back the warmer color I expected to be in the grasses and the animal. I sharpened (still in ACR) by using the Option (MAC) key with the Masking slider, so that Mr. Elk and some of the grasses around this legs were the only things sharpened, then ran the Amount slider all the way.
So, that took care of the “standard” processing. However, who cares? As I wrote, the grazing and stink eye were important to me, so I did a lot of dodging and burning to bring out the eye and the grasses in his mouth. Finally, I used Filter/Unsharp Mask at Amount 200% and 0.8 Radius.
Another thing that struck me as a reason for the photo was its bulk, as you expressed in your second edit. For that I did some selecting, dodging and burning, and the Curves filter. No sharpening was necessary for this impression.
So, I hope you find the key to your interest in this photo, and work to bring that out, using contrasts and emphases. Good luck!