Photo insights

Delve into the technique and approach I took to produce this image!

This one of those images where you plan something in your head, and eventually everything, falls into place. On an afternoon safari I was out filming some general game such as Impala, Wildebeest, kudu, etc.

Animal Behaviour:

I was watching this herd of Wildebeest and I could see these two males starting to size each other up. This is not typically the season where males will be competing for breading right, so it was more a practice fight to prepare them for next season. If you not your animal behaviour, you are able to recognize that when they start to size each other up, they are about to lock horns.

I got myself into a spot where they potentially might meet and waited. I waited patiently, and sure enough, they came and locked horns in the exact spot that I had hoped for. Then it was all up to me to take the shot.

Lighting:

The lighting was simply amazing. Late afternoon soft light was coming from behind the animal. This type of light is known as back lighting. When back lighting is used correctly it can create beautiful artistic images with a strong contract between light and dark areas of the image. Hence why this particually image is in black and white!

Black and White:

I decided to go with black and white with this image to accentuate the contrast between the light and dark areas. The was a good amount of separation between the subject and the background, creating this awesome white look. With not much detail within the white, it forces the viewer to focus on the details of the subject which is what I wanted.

Post precessing:

In post, editing my image in Lightroom, I just further enhance the contrast, adding a bit of de-haze into the background and some sharpening on the subject. Other than that, the was not much precessing done on this image, which often makes them my favorite, knowing I got most of right in-camera :)

If you are interested you can view this image with others in my Black & White gallery

Thanks for reading!