In the dead tree forest

In wildlife photography there is a lot that we cannot control. What we can do is try to be in the right place at the right time, know our equipment in and out and how to use it and built-up experience and learn from our mistakes in the field and behind the PC. It does not happen very often that I am extremely pleased with an image. On the other hand, however, I often am almost very pleased. This of course means that there is something not to my liking and that I either made a FU or it was simply something beyond my control. In this case what was beyond my control was a very large dark OOF object (dead wood) to the left of the frame (of which I cropped the visible sliver off). Due to that OOF object the baboons ended up vertically centered in the frame. Now in my mind this image would have worked so much better if the subjects were a bit more to the right. So now I was up for a dilemma; how could I get the subjects more off centre without physically selecting them and moving them to the left? This would be way too intrusive and not something I would seriously consider. I thought of something else instead, which I regard as more ‘acceptable’. I used the content-aware scale function to extend (stretch) the left side out to the left and ‘shrink’ the right side the same way. Now of course this is also a significant alteration that changes the image from ‘reality’, but IMO it did improve it visually and made it more ‘usable’, without changing the essence of the image. I did not want to overdo it, that is why they are not even more to the right. I tried, but it became too evident to my eye (comparing it to the original that is). I know a lot of you would probably not even consider this type of alterations to an image and others that would do even more intrusive ones. What I notice is that there is a large ‘grey area’ when it comes to what we individually regard as ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ post-processing, an area also whereby we as individuals can shift between the different shades of grey, up and down, all influenced by so many things, not least the available technology.

On top of that I improved this image further by cloning out an OOF grass in front of mamma baboon. (Hey, it is not easy shooting in this kind of cluttered habitat! )

I do not intend to start a discussion about what is acceptable or unacceptable really (the ‘Wildlife Photography Forum’ would be the right place for that), it is more meant as ‘food for thought’.

Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus) mother and child, Khwai, Botswana
Camera Model Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
Shutter Speed 1/1250 Sec.
Aperture Value f/8.0
ISO Speed 400
Evaluative Metering -1.33
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM
App 80-85% of original after changes made mentioned above and slight crop.