Revisiting your old image files can be an interesting exercise, occasionally turning up something that you previously missed. Such is the case with this image of an African Elephant taken in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania back in 2008. I was going through my Lightroom catalogue trying to get my Tanzania wildlife safari photos in some sort of coherent order, when I noticed this shot and thought gee, I don’t recall that one, why did I ignore it previously?
It’s also interesting to review my images from that period and realize how much I’ve changed my way of doing things! Not only have I reviewed my processes as regards to file management, what some people like to call Digital Asset Management (how grandiose does that sound?), but I’ve also learnt a few things along the way about development/processing methods too.
Digital image processing with Viveza
Those who’ve been following the blog over the last month or two will know that I’m now using some of Nik Software’s Photoshop plugins. See my Boats at Varanasi revisited. In this case, I used Nik’s Viveza to add detail “structure”. The best way I can describe “structure” is that it seems to be Nik’s take on what in Lightroom would be called “clarity” in other words, local contrast. The effect has been applied to the foreground elephant in this image, the background was not influenced.
Canon 5D with 500mm lens at F4.0, shutter speed 1/80 second at ISO 800.
A couple of points about the image, firstly you’ll notice the fluid issuing from a gland between the elephant’s eye and ear. The animal is a male in “must” or in season for breeding. Secondly, there are some specks visible in the mid-ground contrasted against the hide of the distant elephant. This is not dust or a fault in processing, but grass seeds floating in the air.
This photograph is part of the Tanzania image gallery. ~KD.