Advice on dealing with boring sky

I changed my mind about my attempt above and had another go.

1-Untitled-1.jpg
 
sk66 said:
That's what I was talking about... finding a sky that is suitable is pretty difficult. This is about the best I could do to match the lighting/tones/saturation/perspective with an available creative commons image.

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That's not an African sky for that vegetation or time of year. Those cloud formations are indicative of the end of the rainy season and would be seen in the middle of the day.

The blue would also be crisp, not hazy, as there would be minimal atmospheric pollution.

It's why dropping skies beyond sunsets rarely works.
 
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Russell Johnson said:
That's not an African sky for that vegetation or time of year. Those cloud formations are indicative of the end of the rainy season and would be seen in the middle of the day.

The blue would also be crisp, not hazy, as the there would be minimal atmospheric pollution.

It's why dropping skies beyond sunsets rarely works.
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Yeah, I have no idea what a typical african sky might look like (other than clear blue)...
 
Sangoma said:
I like that one better, but to me it looks natural for a damp English morning, not for a bright crisp African morning/evening
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Yes, elephants somewhere between Redcar and Middlesbrough on just about any day of the year. Actually that'd be a good day. Today there's no sky at all.
 
Had another go slightly less rushed.
Basically created several layers, put the elephants in the sun, changed the sky from a smoggy London morning to a slightly hazy African morning (though the original is how it sometimes looks ), slightly blurred the vegetation in the foreground, and tried to get a bit more detail on the bird.

Don't say it is more accurate, just more how I would like to remember it had I have taken it :)

Elephants2.jpg
 
For me, I'm not fussed about the sky, it's not what the photo is about. If I were processing this as if it were my own, I'd try masking the bird and try to recover some detail, otherwise I'd be tempt to see wht it was like without the bird.

But that's just me.
 
rd6743 said:
For me, I'm not fussed about the sky, it's not what the photo is about. If I were processing this as if it were my own, I'd try masking the bird and try to recover some detail, otherwise I'd be tempt to see wht it was like without the bird.

But that's just me.
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Two people have mentioned the bird, easy to get rid of, but so much part of the scene that it almost seems incomplete without it :)

Elephantsnb.jpg
 
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This is a photographic forum, not Fookbook or Instawink (substitute vowels & even consonants of choice), in which context it may be suitable to consider the ethos & aims of what we do. Are we decorators, entertainers, or what? What's the purpose of an image? Of course there's quite a range of answers.

Consider the following: trivialisation; fun; dignity; truth; aesthetic; meaning.

Dom, I sympathise with your aim & plight, but why is this image so important? Are there others from your trip that are more satisfying & easier to deal with?

Not suggesting that you chuck this particular one out, I can see its attractions, but in general sometimes that's what's best to do.

It's a good image of a family group, but a bit challenged aesthetically. Your initial adjustments were a bit wild. I suggest that you keep trying yourself, rather than asking for others' input, & that might be a better learning input, because there's been some pretty crazy stuff posted here!

:-(
;-)
 
Sky replacement maybe? Ngl, I really liked the sunset version of your picture, OP! But also yeah, re-taking the picture when the surroundings look better would be thу key answer here imo.
 
You could crop in and focus on the action between the mother and baby. Then the sky doesn't matter.Screenshot_20240910-093826~3.png
 
Probably won't work for you. But, I have an abandon ranch I like to shoot. Been trying for years to get it with cloud cover and never could get it, always a sky like that. Finally on a trip to it, 40 miles, I got some clouds and took a bunch of photos. It was really blah with the empty sky. I think the reason for that is the sky usually takes up to much room so you end up with lots of nothing.
 
I think what you need to do is get clouds stock photos from africa. Their skies look a lot different then say a sky from Alberta.
 
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