Increase contrast...

[spinwise]

this was taken on safari in the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania, East Africa. Canon 50D 22-200mm kit lens. 200, 5.6, 1/100. What could i have done to increase the contrast between the animals and the background?

thanks!
chris

[windrider86]

Have you tried an adjustment layer using levels?

[LeeR]

A great photograph happens when a great subject meets great lighting. You only have half of that equation. Sure, you can try to salavage this in Photoshop, but that will only get you so far.
What is ironic is this; light that is bad for one subject is often ideal for something else. Flat overcast lighting like you have here isn't good for much, but it's fabulous for flowers, chrome, jewelry and some macro work.

[Visions]

I guess a lot of people return from a safari with "tails of Africa", I am another!
You have a good camera and the secret to your contrast is in the format you are shooting. Take your shots in RAW and when you open them you can correct the white balance and the contrast. You will be quite surprised how gentle corrections in Photoshop ACR will improve the images. You can even use ACR with .jpg images (go to Edit>Preferences>File handling and tick Prefer ACR for jpg handling.) Change the preferences back once you are done editing. Have a play! AJ

[PrimeTime]

Originally Posted by spinwise

this was taken on safari in the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania, East Africa. Canon 50D 22-200mm kit lens. 200, 5.6, 1/100. What could i have done to increase the contrast between the animals and the background?

thanks!
chris

Set the levels for each color(RGB) individually. This will also get rid of the color cast as well as add contrast. Set layer to normal.

Use the curves tool or levels tool and move the sliders up to the edge of the histogram on each end.

Unsharp mask with amount around .30 and radius around 30---adjust opacity slider to liking, will add more contrast. Set layer to value

[edbayani]

the backgrounf is too light. try duplicating the layer and set it to multiply, this wil darken it a bit but wil have more details. flatten and do what the others are saying, adjust with curves or levels aqnd maybe desaturate a little.