Hyena Cubs

[Rachel Hollander]

There are a couple of active hyena dens in the Timbavati Game Reserve in South Africa and on my last morning we finally found the adults and cubs home at the den. There were 3 cubs that were estimated to be about 8 weeks old and another 2 that are a couple of months older. These are 2 of the 3 younger cubs as they watched the action from the opening to the den.

Canon 7D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/800
f6.3
ISO 800
EC +1.0
HH from safari vehicle, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective burning and dodging, selective color adjustments and sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

This is a great pose slightly marred by the foreground sand, but I think that there was nothing you could have done about that.

Judging by tour settings they were quite shaded.

My simple question is how much lightening if any you have applied to the pups.

I ask this because young Hyena are generally all black with no brown appearing until around 3 months.

[Steve Canuel]

Welcome back Rachel,
Looks like you had a productive trip. Like the poses of the two, the way they fill the den opening, and the detail of the ground behind them. Not so crazy about the FG sand but know the limitations of safari shooting from the time I've spent on this forum. That said, and not sure how a crop would hold up for your standards, but I liked the look of a 10x8 crop with the upper right ROT power point centered on the forehead of the right hand cub (as viewed) to help eliminate some of the featureless FG.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, sweet image, especial just surfacing out of their den with that curiosity look.

The look & feel of the image to me, appears to have the quality of a flash being used, everything has the same tonal quality, or perhaps it's just the +1comp as you would have added that usage of the built in flash into the Exif data. I would go tighter, still with a landscape format, but also putting the two slightly off centre and reducing the OOF FG. Detail, definition and clarity all look good.

TFS
Steve :5

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Ken, Steve and Steve. No flash used (though I suppose it is possible someone else in the vehicle used a flash that affected the image). The entrance to the den was facing east and this was taken very early on the game drive as the sun started to clear the horizon so it's warm sunlight hitting them but the histogram showed it still needed the EC. Here's a repost with an additional levels adjustment and a reduction in the reds as well as the suggested crop. Please let me know if you prefer it.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,
I much prefer the re-post, the cubs are now a lot darker which is how they should be. The tighter crop is also much better.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
nice one the two puppies looking out of their den.
The RP is a lot better than OP. Like the look of the pups, the contrast and sharpness. The comp works now really good.

But i think the colors look kind of boring, for me. So i tried to push them apart. I do not know if others like it , specially you.
WDYT?

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas for the repost but I prefer the more realistic colors of my repost.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Ok , no problemo!!

Cheers Andreas

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks Andreas for the repost but I prefer the more realistic colors of my repost.

Thanks again,
Rachel

+ 1 here

[Jamie Douglas]

Hello Rachel :5, repost takes this up a notch. Crop and light is better.

Jamie

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Ken and Jamie.

[Grady Weed]

Hi Rachael,

I like the pups here. Perhaps a B&W version cropped to a vertical would give you a different flavor. I was quick with it, S&H using CS4, shadows to the right at 7%, Highlights @ 12% to tone them down. The flash from the fellow shooter seems to have drifted into your image. A slight contrast to boost it a tad. I thought the vertical crop would eliminate the grasses up top right. You will probably get a better look from the RAW file. Your trip looks productive. TFS.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Grady

[Marina Scarr]

Your repost Rachel looks the best to me; however, I would burn the ears on the left baby b/c they appear pretty bright. I pulled them into PS and it made quite a difference to my eyes. I also like the recrop quite a bit.

[Morkel Erasmus]

They always are cute! I prefer your repost, Rachel, but would also try and crop closer from top and sides to remove the dried grass in each top corner.
:5

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Marina and Morkel