Stalking Us from Above

[Rachel Hollander]

Another from my recent trip to the Timbavati Game Reserve outside Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is the mother of the upside down cub.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 200mm
1/800
f4.5
ISO 800
HH from a safari vehicle, cropped from horizontal to vertical, levels, curves, selective color adjustments and sharpened in CS5. Also cloned out a pesky leaf that intruded on the head.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
nice tight portrait, of this beautiful cat.Like the intense look and the raised paw.Just think it is a bit tight at the bottom.I do not know how this leopard is colored, but overall it looks quite flat.
The whites in the fur are more kind of yellow/very light reddish color.So i think i would go for more color variation, the same as with the hyaena pups, looks to flat for me.
Sharpness is ok as well as detail, not sure about the contrast.

All in all , i quite like it.

Cheers Andreas

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

Given the above critique, I have "pixel peeped" your image and quite frankly find very little if anything wrong with it. In fact I think it is very nice indeed, great pose and considering the difficulty of the sky behind the exposure (or your processing) has worked well.

This looks like the right colours for the majority of Leopards I have seen (and there have been plenty) and certainly not flat. The only thing I could suggest would be a small boost to contrast, at least you do not have a problem with the "greens":w3

[Andrew Merwin]

I like the intense stare of this image. The techs seem right on to me. The raised paw is a definite plus. TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, you certainly were lucky with your sightings and the results with the 5 are looking really good, very pleased for you.

Cracking pose, raised paw and look to camera work well, nicely composed although going portrait would have been better to save the crop, but all with hindsight. Regarding the crop I hear what Andreas has said, so perhaps if you have it, I would just extend the crop a little bit at the foot and to the right, (RIP). As you know, I too thought the image looked flat in it's overall depth/tone of colour when i first saw it, so you might want to take another look? Blacks look good especially in the shadow areas of the face, but the eyes could have a little 'pop' to them. I would also try dodge or clone one or two of the white areas at the top of the crop, just helps I think. Personally I would run one more round of USM selectively on the face, just from the eyes, bridge of the nose, I think it would help. Backlit can often be tricky, however looks like you have resolved that. :S3:

BTW, can you check what the exp comp was later please when you get back, just a thought.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks guys for the comments and suggestions. This was actually as she was coming down the tree from a higher branch so no time to switch to portrait and unfortunately no more room below.

Steve - no EC or flash on this one.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

OK 0 exp comp, thanks.

[Hilary Hann]

Lovely image Rachel and I think Steve sums up the c&c pretty well for me.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Hilary

[Marina Scarr]

Killer pose with those eyes and raised paw! Agree on the cat looks a tad flat and could use a boost. I would be really pleased with this capture!!!

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Marina, much appreciated.

[Dumay de Boulle]

You were right next door to me...Looks like you had a great time! Nice sighting and great detail and IQ that we have come to expect from you. Colors could be popped a bit more for my taste. Lovey stuff!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Rachel

Comp works great for me here - feels as though she's gonna pounce on me! :Whoa!:
Agree on the cat looking a bit flat, no doubt due to the shooting conditions. I also think it has a tinge of green on it, often happens in these situations as the camera picks up some green light reflected off the leaves.

Here's a repost - WDYT? Adjusted colour balance to move a bit away from the green, dodged the midtones and shadows on the face a bit, and also added a layer of Nik Tonal contrast at very light settings and opacity. :tinysmile_shy_t:

[Steve Kaluski]

Interesting Morkel, it looks very close to both Andreas's & mine, but we held back the RP, so it's good to see we are all along the same lines of thinking.

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

Your re-post looks to have achieved much the same as using linear contrast although the yellows are very very slightly higher, but to my eyes still within the bounds of natural colour:cheers:

Steve K,

I find your comment most perplexing, can you explain why you and Andreas did re-posts and exchanged them privately rather than share them here on the forum, for the benefit of all participants?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone. Morkel - repost looks good.