Leopard with Impala

[Rachel Hollander]

I hope you're not bored of my leopard shots. Taken in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa in August 2012.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 70mm
1/500
f7.1
ISO 800
EC +.67
HH from safari vehicle, cropped from left and below for comp, luminosity masks, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, slight shadow and highlight adjustment and sharpened in CS6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel - good to see you posting ...... LOL:t3

Never getting bored of the leopard shots, how many have you taken ?They seem to work nicely for you

The image is quite nice in general with a good clear view to the subject , the look into the cam with the impala ? in the fang adds nicely.

You handled the washed out sky ,very good in my opinion.
Nice detail and sharpness where it counts.
My only suggestion would be , opening up range in the face and the eyes of the subject,plus some more colors ,not much, in the foliage.

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Rachel, I cannot help but comment that this leopard has a "caught in the act" kind of look on its face:bg3:! One can never see - or photograph - enough leopards, I am happy to view a new image from you every day. I am very curious to see what the others think about this image, I believe you handled the lighting conditions extremely well and your processing is great; I feel that the subject itself is a bit dark, especially on the face, but nice and sharp overall. Eye contact with your subject is very special:S3:

Kind regards,

[Daniel Cadieux]

The bright sky behind some foliage could have been problematic (it usually is with birds) but I find that it works quite nicely here. The leopard does indeed have a "deer in the headlights" type expression to it, quite comical.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Awesome image, lots of detail, great look by the leopard, the kill is a big plus. 70mm with 5D3!!! You guys must have been real close !!!!

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image Rachel, great expression indeed. Image has been well handled especially the BG, in what looks to be overcast conditions? if so i know the colour tones can appear to be quite muted, however i still feel the image needs a little more punch from a colour perspective

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel. Love the image. I think you handled the overcast BG quite well here and the Leopard looks great with his eyes wide open looking at you. I do not think the Leopard too dark, but Brendon got a point about wishing for more punch from the color perspective, which I know is really hard to do when there wasn't good light. Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks for the kind comments and suggestions. I'll take a look at the color.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice view on this one Rachel, despite the "busy" tree. I'll never get bored of leopard shots!
I would echo the comments on colour and would also dodge the leopard slightly to lift it more (without making the luminosity appear unnatural).

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, nice to see this one with 'The Kill', guess it was taken at the same time as Topsy? I like the look back, but agree, it does have a sense of being a 'busy' image, therefore perhaps a tighter crop may reduce that slightly and bring more focus to the subject? Certainly cropping off the top will help, but left as is, I would have moved the whole frame lower to have included the whole kill. With the amount of images taken of this subject you have shooting backlit subjects down to a fine art, well done. Can't comment on colour as i'm away.

Safe travels, keep in touch during your trip as & when.

TFS
Steve