# Not My Usual Thing--C&C Requested



## sm4him (Apr 3, 2013)

My sister, niece and niece's boyfriend went to a local "Safari Park" this weekend--one of those cheesy little places where you drive through and see African Kudus standing next to a regular old cow and a potbellied pig.  
I called it "Safari Park of Horrors" because my niece (who was driving) and her boyfriend (who was in the front passenger seat, in charge of the food bucket) kept getting accosted by various animals that would thrust their heads into the open window and then stuck their big, slobbery, disgusting-looking tongues out in search of food--both my niece AND her boyfriend ended up screaming like a girl--more than once!

Anyway--I have quite a few pictures and will probably post a few of them later, but I wanted to start with this one, because it's different from my normal processing "style." (Though, as I mentioned in another thread--I don't think I have a style--but I do know I tend to not do much "heavy" processing. I think that's more because I'm lazy than because it's my "style.")

Immediately after being accosted by some of the larger animals, we entered this wooded area and this fellows came walking, very slowly and kinda ominously, toward us--like we'd now entered THEIR world and they were just deciding exactly what horrors awaited us. 

Because of the "ominous" sense of the actual experience, and because we'd gone from a bright, sunny field to this dark woody scene quite rapidly, I just "saw" this as a darker sort of picture.  So that's how I tried to process it. But since I don't really DO that (I think I've only used a vignette about three times in my life), I'm not sure if I achieved the dark, ominous scene I was after.

My *specific* questions are:
--Is it still too "bright", especially around the front animal's face?
--Did I go too heavy on the vignette? Not heavy enough? 
--Is there something else I should do to create that dark, ominous feel?

Any other C&C that isn't related to my specific questions is welcome as well!

Oh, and yes, I know that I cut the rump off the one on the left. Cr*p. My excuse is, I was in a car, shooting with a 70-300 WHILE moving--I did what I could.


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## amolitor (Apr 3, 2013)

The vignette feels good to me. You can go a bit darker, I think, mostly bringing the lighter tones down a bit more but also pushing the shadows down some (the midtones look about right to my eye). Color temperature can go much much cooler, and then desaturate a bit:


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## runnah (Apr 3, 2013)

Looks very Game of Thrones.


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## sm4him (Apr 3, 2013)

amolitor said:


> The vignette feels good to me. You can go a bit darker, I think, mostly bringing the lighter tones down a bit more but also pushing the shadows down some (the midtones look about right to my eye). Color temperature can go much much cooler, and then desaturate a bit:
> 
> View attachment 41061



Thanks--I do think that takes a little of that bright "edge" off that I was still struggling with.  That gives me something to play with a bit.


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## sm4him (Apr 3, 2013)

runnah said:


> Looks very Game of Thrones.



Is that a "good thing" or a "Bad thing?" :lmao:
I've never seen/read The Game of Thrones--hate to admit, I don't even know if it's a book, a movie or a TV show.


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## bc_steve (Apr 3, 2013)

Awesome shot!!  I wouldn't worry that part of one of the animals is cut off, it's the furthest back and not the main subject.  So they're kudus, I was thinking you guys had some strange looking deer in Tennessee.

In amolitor's edit I think the animals look a little blue.  I prefer it to look as realistic as possible, and I think the original looks great.  Well done!


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## squirrels (Apr 3, 2013)

Ooo! I like your darker side very much! I'm leaning toward your first edit.


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## snowbear (Apr 3, 2013)

I like it.


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## Onerider (Apr 3, 2013)

I like it, although I tried very hard to find a bird in there and failed.


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## manaheim (Apr 3, 2013)

I find myself feeling like the deer thing intend me harm, (seriously)

So, whatever your choices and whatever your intent, that was my reaction...


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## PixelRabbit (Apr 3, 2013)

manaheim said:


> I find myself feeling like the deer thing intend me harm, (seriously)
> 
> So, whatever your choices and whatever your intent, that was my reaction...



This! I really like this shot Sharon but damn those are some unfriendly looking deer and I've had a momma deer stomp and snort at me, it started with that "look" you seem to have captured here lol


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## pgriz (Apr 3, 2013)

Somehow, the follow up shot to the one you posted, Sharon, was the one where they pulled back the lips to reveal bared vampire teeth.  I totally get where Chris and Judi are coming from.  Those three have malevolence written all over them.


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## mishele (Apr 3, 2013)

runnah said:


> Looks very Game of Thrones.


Did you watch yet?
Sharon, that's a good thing. 

I have to agree w/ the others. They be scary. It looks like it's a haunted woods or something.


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## Rick58 (Apr 3, 2013)

sm4him said:


> runnah said:
> 
> 
> > Looks very Game of Thrones.
> ...




I watched it until some lady hatched a couple dragon eggs, I thought that was enough for me.

BTW, love the photo


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## pgriz (Apr 3, 2013)

Rick58 said:


> sm4him said:
> 
> 
> > runnah said:
> ...



Rick you didn't watch long enough.  Then the dragons hatch some lady eggs...  and the cycle continues.


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## manaheim (Apr 3, 2013)

Rick58 said:


> I watched it until some lady hatched a couple dragon eggs, I thought that was enough for me.
> 
> BTW, love the photo



Lol!!!!! 

AGOT summarized by a practical man.  Love it!


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## KenC (Apr 3, 2013)

The original was on its way to ominous, and I think Andrews edit is in the right direction, but my choice would be to go even darker than the edit and without the vignette (once it gets dark enough the vignette really is superfluous).  IMO, the faces need to stay a little lighter for contrast.


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## sm4him (Apr 3, 2013)

Onerider said:


> I like it, although I tried very hard to find a bird in there and failed.



:lmao: I know, right? I wasn't sure I still remembered how to shoot anything else!
But now the weather is warming up, watch out--I'll be really "mixing it up" with bugs and flowers, too!   Got some flower shots yesterday in fact--can't wait to find some nice bugs!



manaheim said:


> I find myself feeling like the deer thing intend me harm, (seriously)
> 
> So, whatever your choices and whatever your intent, that was my reaction...





PixelRabbit said:


> This! I really like this shot Sharon but damn those are some unfriendly looking deer and I've had a momma deer stomp and snort at me, it started with that "look" you seem to have captured here lol





pgriz said:


> Somehow, the follow up shot to the one you posted, Sharon, was the one where they pulled back the lips to reveal bared vampire teeth.  I totally get where Chris and Judi are coming from.  Those three have malevolence written all over them.



PERFECT!! That *precisely* describes what we all FELT at the time, and what I was trying to convey. Can't ask for anything more than that!

And yes, Paul, I actually got shots of the vampire teeth, but then...I don't know...things got really hazy after that, and I don't remember much. All I know is, when we all came to, our car was off in the ditch and the BEST pictures were mysteriously missing. :lmao:


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## sm4him (Apr 3, 2013)

KenC said:


> The original was on its way to ominous, and I think Andrews edit is in the right direction, but my choice would be to go even darker than the edit and without the vignette (once it gets dark enough the vignette really is superfluous).  IMO, the faces need to stay a little lighter for contrast.



I'd love to see your idea; feel free to edit it if you'd like.  I'm currently thinking about leaving the vignette, desaturating a little, but leaving the warmer color tone, but I haven't had time to play with it. (I apparently have time to browse TPF instead of getting my work done, but NOT time to edit a photo, lol)


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## cgipson1 (Apr 3, 2013)

Interesting! It makes me think of Circe's island, where she changed so many foolish men into various animals... these could be soldiers that pissed her off! lol! I think the processing fits right in with that...

(I seem to be seeing a lot of Greek mythology in images lately! Strange! About time to read Bullfinche's again! lol!)


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## jowensphoto (Apr 3, 2013)

The Ring Two, anyone? 

Cool shot, very "deer in the headlights" (speedlight?) moment captured. I like the framing a lot


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## CherylL (Apr 3, 2013)

I like the dark edit.  It sets the ominous mood.  A different departure from Bambi shots.


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## sm4him (Apr 3, 2013)

cgipson1 said:


> Interesting! It makes me think of Circe's island, where she changed so many foolish men into various animals... these could be soldiers that pissed her off! lol! I think the processing fits right in with that...
> 
> (I seem to be seeing a lot of Greek mythology in images lately! Strange! About time to read Bullfinche's again! lol!)



Thanks, Charlie! Also...curses! Now you've got ME wanting to read Bullfinch's again too! :lmao:
Greek mythology is some awesome stuff!



jowensphoto said:


> The Ring Two, anyone?
> 
> Cool shot, very "deer in the headlights" (speedlight?) moment captured. I like the framing a lot



No speedlight, or flash of any sort.  Like I said, this was JUST past a really bright, sunny field--you drove around a slight curve and all of a sudden there's this forest, with the Menacing Kudus waiting to greet you. The "deer in headlights" effect is, I think, from the fact that they were right on the very edge of where the sun was reaching.


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## manicmike (Apr 3, 2013)

I really like the creepy "They're going to kill me" vibe.


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## jowensphoto (Apr 4, 2013)

sm4him said:


> cgipson1 said:
> 
> 
> > Interesting! It makes me think of Circe's island, where she changed so many foolish men into various animals... these could be soldiers that pissed her off! lol! I think the processing fits right in with that...
> ...



LOL I just meant the look on their faces... the speedlight part was a bad joke.


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## sm4him (Apr 4, 2013)

jowensphoto said:


> sm4him said:
> 
> 
> > cgipson1 said:
> ...



This morning, as I was sipping coffee, that totally made sense to me. Last night, I had entered my "literalist" mode and the joke never even occurred to me!  I should really not post after a long day of work; especially one followed by a funeral (no, not a loved one--the mom of a good friend). 

Deer in the speedlight...that's funny.


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## KenC (Apr 4, 2013)

sm4him said:


> KenC said:
> 
> 
> > The original was on its way to ominous, and I think Andrews edit is in the right direction, but my choice would be to go even darker than the edit and without the vignette (once it gets dark enough the vignette really is superfluous).  IMO, the faces need to stay a little lighter for contrast.
> ...



I had a little time to work on it last night, so here it is.  I didn't reverse the vignette - difficult if it's not on a separate layer.  All I did was to select the animals, invert selection, apply a curves layer to darken mostly the highlights and mid-tones in the background, paint on the layer a bit to darken the brighter parts of the legs and backs, and then I lightened a couple of the faces just a little.  Looking at it now, I probably would have darkened the background more if the vignette weren't there.


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## sm4him (Apr 4, 2013)

KenC said:


> sm4him said:
> 
> 
> > KenC said:
> ...




Thanks; I appreciate your taking the time to give it a go. I like that--it doesn't remove all the light, just makes it a little "moodier."

I'll have to see if I can find the time this weekend to go in and play some more with the "original" (the original PS file that is), where the vignette IS on a separate layer.  But what do you mean by "painting on the layer?" Like using the paintbrush loaded with a color, or just burning the area?  MY PS skills are what I'd call "knows JUST enough to be extremely dangerous."


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## Ilovemycam (Apr 4, 2013)

OP...Nice job!

Cut rump is not bad - cut feet is worse. But with 'on the fly' shooting it is acceptable. Really, you should not even bring it up when shooting on the fly. If you got 85% of what you were after it is a success.

I wrote a story about such things, but can't post it here. It revolved around Bresson's famous shot...

http://www.nysun.com/pics/4425.jpg

Only person that would complain about cutoffs, when shooting on the fly, is someone that doesn't shoot street.


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## KenC (Apr 4, 2013)

sm4him said:


> But what do you mean by "painting on the layer?" Like using the paintbrush loaded with a color, or just burning the area?  MY PS skills are what I'd call "knows JUST enough to be extremely dangerous."



Time to get even more dangerous.  Look up painting on layer masks - the mask is actually what you paint on - lazy phrasing on my part.  Every adjustment layer has a mask to the right of the symbol that shows whether it is a curves, brightness, etc. adjustment.  The default is white, which means whatever effect the adjustment layer has applies to the entire image.  If you changed the mask to black, that would completely block the adjustment (making the layer pointless).  However, say you want to darken only a few areas in the image.  You invert the mask to black (from Layers menu or from the tab on the adjustment layer (at least in CS5)), then use the paintbrush tool with a suitable brush to paint white on those areas (making sure the layer mask is selected when you do this).  You will see the effect immediately on the image.  If you later decide to change the intensity of the effect or the areas where it applies, you just change the adjustment layer, the original image remaining unchanged.

I know this may be difficult to visualize if you haven't done it.  I know when I first saw a description of this in a PS manual some years back I had to read it a few times.  I'm sure there are tutorials or there's always just playing around with it.


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## ceeboy14 (Apr 4, 2013)

I don't watch TV. Last time I turned mine on there was some stupid "Survivor's" show on and I relaized given three days alone in th ewoldrness, they's all be cougar breakfast - at best. It was enough for me. I use mine to watch movies.


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