Cross Head Giraffes

[hirowen]

Nikon D70s, 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 DX IF ED, f/14, 1/500s, ISO 200, NEF


1.What area is critique to be sought?

I will like feedback on the composition, photography and post processing techniques.
I have composed the picture this way to follow the rule of third.
I have chosen f/14 so that depth of field will not be great as I'm intend to include the backdrop.
1/500 seconds will be sufficient to freeze the two giraffes without any motion blur.
I have set the black, white and mid point of the picture to correct the colour cast. Increased some contrast and saturation. I have also add in gradient mix for the blue sky to become more bluer. Last but not least, unsharp mask to sharper the image.

2.What one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?

I want to show the feeling of AFRICA, the beauty of nature through this picture. And also, I want the viewers to feel the LOVE between the crossed head giraffes, just like newly weds cross hand wine toasting.


3. Under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)

I took this picture when my boss and I went for sight seeing in Naval Hill. From far, I saw these 2 giraffes, the male and the female. I'm not holding any telephoto lens as you can see. What I have done next will be making myself proud at least for quite some time. I slowly walk nearer to the giraffes, one step at a time, without alerting them. I have to walk really slow or else they will just run off. After some hard 15 minutes, I finally get close enough to snap some pictures. To get this, lucks does not play a big part, techniques do play a part too, remember, we are shooting animals. The photo that I posted, is the last snap of them, eventually when they crossed head and saw me, they ran off. Lights is good for me to freeze them without using my biggest f/4.5. Slow walk really makes my knee hurts, but it does pay off, well I guess.

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture?

I've applied the rule of third into this photo. The crossing of head and pose to camera is a good snap. Reminds me of wedding couples cross hand to drink wine, and I believe the giraffes are deeply in love too. I intentionally avoid isolate my subject as I feel that background and foreground will eventually helps to add in more feeling. And yeah, the feeling of AFRICA.

 

[cjyong]

Hi,

nice concept of the giraffes crossing the heads.
nice colour too.
bt did u ps the de blue part of the sky? seems a bit fake to me.
just my two cents.

Cheers.

 

[hirowen]

Thanks cjyong. Yes I ps the sky. Add in gradient mix to make it bluer.

 

[eric.appleguy]

I'm not sure why the inclusion of the background was purposeful, as it clutters up the shot. The treeline also seems to 'cut' the giraffes at the neck, which might've been minimized if the trees have been thrown out of focus.

Otherwise, nice composition. Effort taken to do 'Sneakerzoom' also applauded. 8)

 

[Werty]

Nice composition!
btw, wat does the "1:3.5-4.5" thing on lens or camera means?

 

[hirowen]

Haha! thanks eric and werty for the comments.
btw 1:3.5-4.5 means the biggest aperture of the lens can goes to f/3.5(18mm) - f/4.5 (70mm)

 

[nikontiger]

I love the shots, I see your point in the composition and agree with your choice. To be more critical, the picture shows quite an amount of noise in the clouds, and I suspect the trees at the side will have color aberations against the white clouds. But all these noise may be due to the compression you have to do in order to post this picture, or the blue enhancement you have given.

This will be my preferred composition IMHO, if telephoto is available:

Overall, I love it

 

[hirowen]

Thanks nikontiger, your comments is very appreciated.

 

[nmk]

I think that you should zoom in / crop the image. The main object of interest are the heads and necks of the giraffes and everything that does not accentuate these/ draw attention to these should be removed.

 

[BernZ]

Hi Hiro,

My feedback is that i am not too convinced of the mood that you are trying to portray through the photo. I gathered from the photo that the Giraffes' look rather defensive than being loving ( although they probably are ) . Although the posture might resemble the symbolical wedding cocktail ritual, the Giraffes' expression fails it all.

I have to acknowledge that it is difficult to capture expressive shots like that in the wild, and i myself am no expert in this field of shooting. Therefore i can only limit my critique to whether the photo is as convincing to me as you would like it to be.

I hope this helps. Cheers :cheers:

 

[starrynight]

I like this pic.
I like the colours / subject ... plus the crossing of head n neck. Indeed a moment capture when both look at you.
But I would use less depth of field to isolate the animals more i.e f8, just a personal preference to 'pop' the subject.
keep shooting n have fun.

 

[ortega]

I prefer the crop by nikontiger

and i have brought it 1 step further

1. the light does not seems to be on the giraffes, so i adjusted your picture to make them stand out abit, choosing a time where the sun is out would be better.

2. my choice of cropping, i have noticed that you have a foreground, the giraffes and a background layer, so i cropped to maximise this for a sense of depth while adjusting the tones of the different layers.

3. i find your blue sky overdone and unnatural, so i tried to tone down the blue.

 

[hirowen]

Thanks to nmk, Bernz, starrynight and ortega for the useful comments. I will do something more on my composure next time.

 

[Werty]

Thanx hirowen =)

 

[eikin]

Nice composition!
btw, wat does the "1:3.5-4.5" thing on lens or camera means?

please take note that such queries are to be directed to the intended party via private message and not posting inside critique corner. do read the stickies http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=273343

thanks.

 

[nikontiger]

I prefer the crop by nikontiger

and i have brought it 1 step further

1. the light does not seems to be on the giraffes, so i adjusted your picture to make them stand out abit, choosing a time where the sun is out would be better.

2. my choice of cropping, i have noticed that you have a foreground, the giraffes and a background layer, so i cropped to maximise this for a sense of depth while adjusting the tones of the different layers.

3. i find your blue sky overdone and unnatural, so i tried to tone down the blue.

Nice job at retouching it , its my preference too :thumbsup:

 

[sprintist]

There is the other way of cropping too, the more pano way. As your framing puts it, it doesn't seem to bring out the height of the giraffe. While having a pano crop, the row of trees will then seem much shorter than the height of the giraffe. Some editing to bring out the contrast in the giraffe works too. nice capture I would say, if only I could be there!