Leopard

[Rachel Hollander]

I hope you're not getting tired of leopards (I'll try and keep it to posting only one leopard shot per week). Another of the mother up in the tree, this time she looked up from the kill and a shaft of the late afternoon light hit her.

Canon 5D3
100-400 @ 340mm
1/500
f5.6
ISO 800
EC +.67
HH from safari vehicle, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments and sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I'm very envious of you close-up encounters, the shooting angles I find very appealing.

Composition wise, I like it, and you have handled the backlighting well too. Having the dapple leaves above conveys the canopy scene nicely. Personally I do find the yellow/saturation a little heavy and 'perhaps' effecting some of the chest colouring, likewise side belly? Just pulling it back, although I used Nik to do so, I do think helps. The eyes also become cleaner too. It's not much, but again, it's sometimes just those minor adjustments that make it. Loosing a little off the RHS to a 3x2 format just tightens it for me. :w3

You are building a very nice series of images.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,

well exposed with nice colors and good composed image of the cat.Like the look with the tongue sticking out.

The leaves helped a lot to tame the sky, and the beam of light to the face is nice.
Nicely processed with good detail and sharpness.Not sure about the blacks ,wonder that Steve said nothing.I think they are a tiny bit too heavy in parts.
The yellows maybe Steve is right about them, would give it a try. Sharpness could be a bit more , for my taste in parts of the face .

Well done, Rachel.
Seems to be , you had a lot of cats sightings on your trip.Great for you. I have never been that close to a leopard.

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

The light hit her face just right here Rachel. Nice details and profile. Good suggestions above, particularly in reducing yellows (perhaps blacks a smidgeon too?) and in cropping a sliver off the RHS.
I for one won't tire of leopard images :5

[Marina Scarr]

Very strong image, and just love the tongue and whiskers. Leaves overhead work well. You handled the back lighting here very well.

[dankearl]

Cool close up and angle. I think toning down the light in the BG on the left would look nice.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Here's a repost implementing the suggestions except for the crop. The image is 3x2 as posted, not sure why you think it is not.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Jamie Douglas]

Hi Rachel, sweet profile and I like the crop. Repost has lost some of the umph that the colour depth gave in the original post. Maybe something in the middle might be better.

Jamie :wave:

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
Jamie is right .Think the blacks looks a lot better now ,colors looks too flat now.
So somewhere in between should be right.
I took the RP and pushed it a tad.
WDYT?

[Tom Graham]

I think Rachel's repost, #7, is the best of the bunch.
Tom

[Hilary Hann]

Almost feel that you can reach out and touch her. I think your repost is a bit flat and Andreas' has obviously lost some quality as he worked on the small jpg, but I'd be happy with the OP because I do like them punchy.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jamie, Tom, Andreas and Hilary. Here's one with a bit less reduction of yellows. I think it works.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel, think my RP is not good enough, likewise yours think you lost some clarity compared to OP.

Think the image needs to look a bit cleaner , more clarity is appropriate her, but how to achieve ?

All colors look now kind of dirty.

[Rachel Hollander]

Andreas - it's the same tiff file just with the yellows pulled back -12 and the blacks pulled back -6 plus some brightness added +8. Should not affect clarity at all. I may have used slightly less sharpening for web in the conversion this time and that may be what you are referring to. Otherwise, I'm not sure.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Rachel unfortunately i do have no solution for that, others have.
I took several versions into PS watched them side by side, by far from clarity the OP was best for my taste,but too rich in yellow and /or red.
I know it is possible to achieve a fresher/cleaner look with this one, you "only" need to know how to get to that stage, but i do not know how to do it.
For me the image looks now kind of "dirty".

[Steve Kaluski]

OK, I think as I mention Rachel, the OP I felt was too yellow/or warm IMHO, I think your RP was better, but lacks some punch, so for me it's somewhere between the two. Andreas your RP is getting there, but the blacks/contrast is a fraction too strong, albeit personal preference, however I do think the last RP Rachel the image has lost the sharpness/clarity you originally captured.

It's always a very fine balance with images like this, however try also looking at the whites too, not just the overall colours. Now I have not changed anything since the discussion progressed, all I have done was to adjust the colours in question, cleaned the whites a bit, blacks as is (to me they are fine) added +8 of brightness and added a hint of sparkle to the eyes (opened them up), WDYT? It's not perfect, but may help you guys, however view in PS.


The image is 3x2 as posted, not sure why you think it is not.

Now you have me thinking, probably because I work on 1024 x 724. :S3:

Cheers
Steve :wave:

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve and Andreas. I'll take another look in PS tonight.

Cheers,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Mr. Detail,
i think you have been sitting there with a smile on your face, at least me ,i was spending almost 2 hours on this bloody image toggling between different versions and never get close to your version , which i find is just right.

My version looks compared to yours , likewise Rachel`s ,kind of dirty, think the magic is lying in those whites.I remember you asking, how can i clean those whites and you answered , you do not know.But at least ,from today on i know that you know what to do, but you do not want to share.
So i think , go into the grave with your trick:5,and become happy with it.Just a joke !!!!!!
Honestly i tried to work on the whites the whole time today , but did not find a solution that was making me happy, but i will look somewhere else.

Thanks for posting Steve.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, as you know, I will suggest areas to look at and 'explore', always giving the key may not always mean you will understand how you got there or achieved the result. So there are many ways to this, but try going into Selective colour > Whites > then move the slider to the left ie yellow, you may also find that you have to adjust other colours to ie Yellow and the yellow slider, it's all about trying to get a happy balance and sometimes it's not the colour you think, but remember, for every action you will affect other areas and therefore you need to mask. You may also find other software can also help to. This is not an instant solution, just another suggestion.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Steve,
i already used the selective color tool, but could not get the desired progress, for sure i took your version as reference.And i know , we talked about that and understand your point, so no honest worries about it.

I would call it myself an outbreak of frustration , so i say sorry was not meant that bad.I was just feeling upset about my own inability to solve this problem myself.

So thanks again even if it is not my image , for showing the direction how to improve things, still can learn a lot.

Cheers Andreas

[Tom Graham]

Fun to download and save images #1, #7, #12 (all three Rachels) and #16 (Steve's) . Then flip between the four. Steve's #16 is winner for me.
But such little differences, I wold hate to work with a printer to optimize it to Steve's :)
Tom

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve's #16 is winner for me.

Cheers Tom, however the credit has to go to the owner who took the image in the first place. :S3:

[Jamie Douglas]

I visited the post, made a comment about the respost, and then missed all the action :2eyes2:

Late to the party... again, but hats of to Rachel for capturing such a great image and to the one and only "Mr Detail" for adding the PS magic to bring it to life.

Love those big glassy eyes and the tongue.

Sweet sweet sweet :5

Jamie

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jamie,
think you hit the nail on the head.

Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone, it has certainly been an educational thread.

Rachel