Taken at Natural Bridge Zoo in VA. I had a great time and took lots of shots, so it was hard to choose one!
Anyway, I decided on Asha. She was so gentle and sweet. I fed her and she let me pet and stroke her. (Supposed to be good luck to be touched by an elephant!) She also gives rides to kids. She kept scratching her back leg, so it's kind of a weird pose.
PP included:
crop
numerous selective layers (sky, background, midground, foreground, Asha): curves, color sat, gaussian blur, sharpen, exposure/light
spot removal for a few blemishes in trees and around Asha
blending brush to smooth transitions from detail to blur
extra sharpen & contrast around eyes
save for web
Statistics
Place: 29 out of 198 Avg (all users): 6.4061 Avg (commenters): 7.2857 Avg (participants): 6.1858 Avg (non-participants): 6.6207 Views since voting: 2373 Views during voting: 354 Votes: 229 Comments: 28 Favorites: 5 (view)
This photograph is just wonderful! The colors are just perfect. I really like how it has a very soft feeling and yet the texture of her skin is very prominate.
I've commented on this before but I had to come back again to it because you captured her so beautifully. She is already in my favorites!
I think what sets this portrait off the most is her skin tones, and the soft blur of the background.
Great background (I know I fight with the cage wires). Good focus and color and what emotion! She is so young and cute... however the centering bothers me a tad.
This is a wonderful picture. I have tried the elephants at our local zoo in Tampa and even with some PS help I can't match colors like this. The pose is also wonderful catching her with her ears flared.
Congratulations on a top 30 finish and a high score. Very crisp and nice shot. Not a fan of the blurred background but can understand your comment and think you did a good job in the little time you had before the challenge ended. Keep up the great work!
To the commenters on the background: I was disatisfied with the GB transition on this as well and had worked up a much better version to post when my laptop crashed minutes before the cut-off time. GRRR! - LOL. I will post the updated version in my Portfolio. However, overall, I'm still VERY pleased with my PB to date! Woo-hoo!!! Top 30! I'll take it!
The blurred background looks really badly done, and it's a real distraction, sorry. Most photoshopped blackgrounds do, since the transition is too quick, and doesn't progress going backwards, and it too soft. Also, the characteristics of real blur are not present. If you have Photoshop CS try using an alpha layer to set distances and use the 'Lens Blur' tool for a much more realistic effect.
Nice capture of the elephant. However, the background looks weird to me. I may be wrong but it looks like it's been blur in photoshop. Again, I may be wrong, but it doesn't look natural to me.
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