African Elephant

[Dunk]

Hi all...first post so be gentle

Here is a picture of an african elephant I took in Addo Park, South Africa.



The original shot...I thought was a little bland and lacked contrast.

Here is the modified version...



First of all....I selected the elephant so I could

1. Desaturate the background...all those Acacia trees..
2. Added a duplicate layer with soft Light and knocked down the opacity to boost the elephant contrast and colour.
3. Did an overall curves and hue / sat adjustment.
4. Finally sharpened the elephant slightly to see all those wrinkles.....I'm sure she wouldnt be happy about that

What do you think? Is it too contrasty, or does it look OK for the elephant to jump out

Comments and critiques are very welcome as I'm learning - What would you have done diferently..

Duncan from Scotland...no elephants here

x

[jbm1991]

Your edit is quite a good edit, although it is still a bit too unsaturated for my personal liking. Here is a really quick edit I did just now, as it was so quick i may have oversaturated it a bit. If you like it i'll tell you how i did it



Best wishes
John

[doctorjames]

Duncan, I like what you have done there. Its what post processing should be about in my opinion, usually small changes to optimise the original exposure.

Saturation is a bit like a loudness button on a car radio, a little bit here and there is good, but the blanket application of saturation makes for a boring and samey effect over and over. A lot of point and shot cameras oversaturate because oversaturated pics have more 'wow' factor ( so are generally more appealing to point and shooters) . I dont use a loudness button on my stereo and I very rarely apply a significant blanket change to saturation.

Needless to say, I dont like John's take on your pic, but each to their own. I thought what you had done by desaturating was clever and effective, with exactly the desired effect.

[gturner]

I think the 1st image is a pretty good reflection of a Addo cow. Red dust, acacia trees... maybe a touch of contrast is all it needs.
Your processed version gives it the 60s safari snap tone and feeling.

Pity you don't have the face and trunk in the shot...

Sorry John, your version doesn't work for me.

[rookie wizard]

even i think that the 'wow' factor that saturaton of colors brings is realy important but should not be overdone. in the first post, the processed picture would have looked much more appealing in my opinion if the contrast between the red/brown of the elephant and the green of the shrubs and trees would have been enhanced and colors a bit saturated..red and green are opposite colors on the color wheel,if im not wrong. they standout.enhancing the blacks would take care of the wrinkles.all this can be done in seconds on camera raw.