Bovine Divinity

[fx101]

A while ago I had a featured photo from Bernex in the Geneva canton of Switzerland (although I was in France technically I think) with a cow on a hill. Recently I had the opportunity to shoot there again (with many cows of course) and I got this shot, which I processed a bit in PS. I'm worried it's too yellow though. Is it? I like the warmth but if I look closely it might have too much of a cast. How's the lighting and composition?

Nikon D200 w/MB200, Sigma 15-30mm at f/8 and ISO 400 on a Gitzo Basalt tripod with an ArcaSwiss Ballhead.

[Greg McCary]

I like it. Nice work. I like how all of the cows are sitting but the one. You have something on the far right you might consider cloning. It's not to yellow for me.

[jkriminger]

good shot again fx..looks like you got the same cow too..same blocks and fence posts also The life of a cow. - Photography & Digital Camera Forums

[fx101]

I like it. Nice work. I like how all of the cows are sitting but the one. You have something on the far right you might consider cloning. It's not to yellow for me.

Thanks! I'll clone it out on my next edit.

good shot again fx..looks like you got the same cow too..same blocks and fence posts also The life of a cow. - Photography & Digital Camera Forums

That's because it's from the same place, a little bit off a trail. It's quite possible that it's the same cow because there are about 12 in all and I can't imagine they were sold off in a year.

[Don Schaeffer]

This is wonderful. Perfect composition.

[Frog]

I like the composition but I do think its too yellow and some of the cast is even in the clouds and on the cows. I suppose it could be my monitor.
I'd crop the shadow and whatever on the right and then about half of the foreground below the fence.
Very nice shot though.

[frleal70]

That's a great pic. I agree with Frog, it is a bit too yellow, but not by much.

[readingr]

I agree with who ever said to crop a little of the bottom and clone the bit on the right.

As for too yellow I'm in too minds, perhaps back it off just a little.

Roger

[Tony Figueira]

That's a nice picture.

About the picture being too yellow, I've run this picture in photoshop I thought it would be the white balance but it's not I've set the black and white point and it looks the same.

However when I had a look at the histogram the blue channel has a big chunk of info missing almost in the middle, very strange, if you haven't taken a chunk of blue intentionally with post processing I would check the color settings and levels in your camera.

Personally I dont think it's too yellow, but I'm no expert, so I would go with the opinion of the older and wiser.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks for sharing

[fx101]

That's a nice picture.

About the picture being too yellow, I've run this picture in photoshop I thought it would be the white balance but it's not I've set the black and white point and it looks the same.

However when I had a look at the histogram the blue channel has a big chunk of info missing almost in the middle, very strange, if you haven't taken a chunk of blue intentionally with post processing I would check the color settings and levels in your camera.

Personally I dont think it's too yellow, but I'm no expert, so I would go with the opinion of the older and wiser.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks for sharing

WOW ! You're right! There was a huge chunk missing in the blue channel! I tried to eliminate a bit of the cast and steer the image toward a more neutral tone without changing the colors. I used image calculations to help me create color sensitive masks, then I used the inverse and applied a cooling filter gradient (to counteract the yellow) which I blended in and applied where nescessary using the layer masks. Also, I converted the image to B&W and tried a platinum toned version. I actually like it more than the colour version I think. I'm not sure I got the colours right on the second revision but let me know because even though my monitor is calibrated some of these things are hard to percieve even with a histogram .

Colour:


B&W Platinum Tone

[Frog]

In the second color version, I think the color is better.
I do notice some haloing in the trees, however, which also seems to be there in the b/w.

[fx101]

In the second color version, I think the color is better.
I do notice some haloing in the trees, however, which also seems to be there in the b/w.

Yeah that's an editing artifact. Do you know of a good way of getting rid of the haloing effect? I'm going to try to get rid of it by cloning so we'll see how that goes.

[fx101]

OK here is revision 3 of Bovine Divinity.

Changes:
1) Used the "burn" tool to darken the halo surrounding the tree line.
2) Used a brightness gradient layer masked with the treeline selection to eliminate the bright halo effect for good (some artifacts left but it's not too bad).
3) Increased apparent dynamic range of the image by lightening the trees to match normally percieved brightness.
4) Saturation -2 on colour image.

Colour v3


Platinum Toned Black and White v2

[Frog]

Your last color version is the best for me. Well worth the work!
I can find stuff but don't often know how to fix it.

[readingr]

The last one is much better.

I like the platinum finish as well.

Roger

[fx101]

Your last color version is the best for me. Well worth the work!
I can find stuff but don't often know how to fix it.

Yes, but it also gives me an excuse to fiddle around with PS to see what I can do. Generally I come up with around ten theories of how to fix something. Five of them fail miserably, two of them work but ruin something else, one of them sort of works, and one of them works flawlessly. PS work is time consuming sometimes because of this.

[jkriminger]

Really nice clarity here...I would love to see more of the area. do you have any more pics of your trips?..

[ChowChi-Ching]

I prefer the color ones, there is more detail in the cattle still lying down on the ground where as the b/w ones you lose the details and it kind of gives the appearance of a cattle massacre!

Other then that....... I like the last color edit, or the first both offer a different feeling, and both equally good.

[Wild Wassa]

The original photo, still remains the best of the images. The top shot is a top shot.

The horns on the cow look ominous, but not as ominous as the dark shape and shadow on the right. It could be a cape to torment the cow or someone with something even more evil.

The lateral contrast between the yellow and the black adds another threatening element, because they are in such total conflict.

I don't feel the image needed to be turned in to an excercise of finding a more pleasing image. The raw nature of the image I feel is the image. I like the photo, the level of execution is as sharp as those horns appear to be.

The dark object on the right leaves a lot for the viewer's imagination to ponder ... the cow, the photographer and the threatening dark object. What ever that dark object is, the cow looks like it is gathering its thoughts being resigned to its next move.

Who ever makes the play ... assures the viewer a most spirited contest.

That cow doesn't look like it would be called something bucolic like Daisy or Buttercup with those muscles ... maybe something like Hair Trigger or Vulcan.

Warren.

[Addies Granddaddy]

I'm liking the balance created by the foreground cow.
John