Not My Usual Thing--C&C Requested

[manaheim]

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!

 

[KenC]

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.

 

[sm4him]

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!

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

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:

 

[sm4him]

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)

 

[cgipson1]

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!)

 

[jowensphoto]

The Ring Two, anyone?

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

 

[CherylL]

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

 

[sm4him]

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!

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.

 

[manicmike]

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

 

[jowensphoto]

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!

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.

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

 

[sm4him]

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!

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.

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

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.

 

[KenC]

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)

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.

 

[sm4him]

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)

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.

View attachment 41199

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."

 

[Ilovemycam]

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.

 

[KenC]

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.