[Leica] Old Photographs

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Jim, Don, Peter, Alan

Thanks for looking and commenting.

Here is the link to "The Hunt":

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah2.jpg.html

Cheetahs and Zebras always convert acceptably well to B&W because of the
patterns of their coat, but I am not a very big fan of B&W for wildlife,
unless, like the shot of the elephant and her calf, the scene is flat and
bereft of colour anyway! The second B&W in this set, the cheetah, was
converted only to emphasize the colour of its eyes. My view is that the
interplay of colours is critical to depict wildlife, even when the
background is largely monochromatic, and blurred out. Peter mentioned Nick
Brandt - like everyone else, I was blown away by his early work - I saw it
first in Lenswork, and then his first book. The limitations of B&W for
wildlife work soon became apparent with time, because his work became very
repetitive, as if he had hit a brick wall, and tended to pall.

The last zebra shot has a post processing story behind it - actually, in
the original capture, the youngster has motion blur, so I never bothered
processing it, but for some reason retained the RAW file. Topaz Sharpen AI
fixed that in a jiffy! The moral is to never delete anything, storage is
cheap!

Cheers
Jayanand




On Wed, Jun 23, 2021 at 4:36 PM Peter Dzwig <pdzwig at summaventures.com>
wrote:

> Jayanand,
>
> wonderful photos. A few comments:
>
> - the first two have the same link, which has left me desperate to see
> "the Hunt"!! :-)
>
> - My favourite is "Cheetah3" which I think is brilliant. You caught it
> at just the right instant. I would love to see a B&W version as well if
> that were possible, perhaps with the contrast up.
>
> - "First Steps" is gorgeous. I was wondering about a tighter crop and
> again possibly a B&W version.
>
> Apart from my predilection for B&W, I was thinking of the work of people
> like Nick Brandt (early work only!) and others who worked in B&W and
> thinking that your shots would stand comparison with theirs.
>
> Peter
>
> On 22/06/2021 16:51, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
> > I have been whiling away my time in the second lockdown by processing
> > afresh old RAW files from my Africa trips starting with 2008, using the
> > modern post processing tools available, some of which are frankly
> > astonishing in what they achieve. The biggest advantage of digital over
> > film, IMHO, is the ability to treat the RAW file as an unprocessed film,
> > again and again, as many times as we wish. The software that I used for
> > this purpose consisted of a mix of some (but never nearly all) of DXO
> > PureRAW, Luminar 4, Luminar AI, Nik Collection 4, Topaz Sharpen AI, Topaz
> > Denoise AI and my old standby, the Photokit Suite - with Lightroom CC and
> > Photoshop CC. Phew!
> >
> >  Here is the first set, then:
> >
> > Pied Piper:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Storks.jpg.html
> >
> > The Hunt:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Storks.jpg.html
> >
> > Family Portrait 1:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah3.jpg.html
> >
> > Family Portrait 2:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah7.jpg.html
> >
> > Walkabout:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah1.jpg.html
> >
> > Training Session:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah5.jpg.html
> >
> > Red Eyes:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah4.jpg.html
> >
> > Two Headed Hydra:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Cheetah9.jpg.html
> >
> > Play:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_AfricanElephant.jpg.html
> >
> > Reassurance:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_AfricanElephant2.jpg.html
> >
> > Food Security:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_NileCrocodile.jpg.html
> >
> > First Steps:
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/reprocessed/JayanandGovindaraj_Zebra.jpg.html
> >
> > I have posted the images quite large so that viewers can see all the fine
> > details that have been retained, coupled with the lack of noise, in these
> > photographs, thanks to the PP tools at our command nowadays. These were
> > mainly taken with Nikon APS-C bodies that we could not use beyond ISO
> 400 -
> > even ISO 800 used to be a stretch! Those were the days!
> >
> > Comments/Criticism/Suggestions are, as ever, most welcome.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Jayanand
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
>
> --
>
> Dr. Peter Dzwig
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>