Phinda dawn cheetah portrait

[Stan Cunningham]

This is from a vertical I took on a red dawn morning.
It's a very large crop (> 50%) but with the 5D III focus and ff sensor I was able to keep the IQ, at least too my eyes.
The raw file had a large red tint which I removed most of in Curves. Still left some because that's what it looked like that morning.
Love the eyes on this one. I know the crop is squarish but that's what I wanted and just going to make a smaller print museum mount style.
Always humbling to post in the same place as the "locals" but the comments I get are so valuable.
Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 F4, ISO 800 F 4.0 1/640 sec
clarity and exp adjusted in LR
Levels, 2 curves adjustments, selective color, and USM in CS 6. sRGB profile embeded so I hope it's there.
Thanks for comments.
Stan

[Marc Mol]

Nothing not to like here Stan, nice portrait here in quality light. Love those amber eyes.
Felt it needed a small amount of USM and some brought out some more shadow detail using Nik Viveza on the cheetah's right eye/face.
WDYT?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Stan - for me this is one of your best in terms of pp. IQ did hold up to the large crop at least for web presentation, hopefully it will for print too. Nice detail and great eye contact and view of the eyes. Marc's rp has made an already great image a touch better.

TFS,
Rachel

[Martin Dunn]

Lovely portrait of a beautiful cat Stan. Great eyes.
Marc's re-post has made it even better.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Stan, the RP is better, as the blacks do look choked in the OP, better addressed in LR or ACR as you are using the RAW rather than a tiff with using other software, as the results will be far better. The light & crop works well, but I would take the slight blue tinge out of the whites on the LHS of the face. In this instance I might run a small amount of NR on the BKG. I'm surprised with the amount of DOF at f/4, however if this is head on, the right ear does not have the same amount of 'sharpness' as the left considering they are on the same plain, could it be a missed area of original sharpening, or perhaps the head is just slightly/marginally turned?

TFS
Steve

[Stan Cunningham]

Hi all, I agree Marc's RP is better. Did you lighten it a tad Marc? Maybe it's my monitor. I've tended to oversharpen cheetah's in the past so I left it low. I'll take another run with USM.
Only you would notice that blue tint Steve, good man. Hard to believe as the blue histogram was way low but I'll see what I can do.
And thanks for the compliments as well guys.
Stan

[Marc Mol]

Hi all, I agree Marc's RP is better. Did you lighten it a tad Marc?

Hi Stan

Didn't touch anything other than USM (45%) and increased shadow detail using a Nik Viveza control point on the (it's) right eye/face area.:w3

[Steve Kaluski]

sRGB profile embeded so I hope it's there.

As I have heard nothing back Stan I assume you were able to resolve the issue of not having an embedded profile with the prompts/info supplied, but yes it has an embedded sRGB profile.

[Danny Laredo]

Whats not to like. Love the eye contact light and detail.

[Loi Nguyen]

Stan, I think the detail and sharpness of the face at F4 is amazing, but that has to be because you weren't that close. ButThe crop holds very well here. The colors of the eyes are just simply amazing. Loi

[christopher galeski]

nice portrait Stan,like it,Marc's repost as took it up a notch.TFS.

[Gabriela Plesea]

A beauty, Stan! Next time you come to Phinda please come and say hi-we are only 30 minutes away...Lovely portrait in great light, enjoyed viewing this very much!

Kind regards,

[dankearl]

Nice portrait, the RP is better, nice light and beautiful eyes....

[Morkel Erasmus]

Gotta love how the early/late light hits their eyes!
Lovely detail and gaze here Stan - RP an improvement but may have been overcooked slightly on the sharpening? Will have to look on the proper screen when I get home.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

This is a great shot and I think Marc took it to its full potential.

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Stan

Lovely moment you captured here!

I would do the sharpen in between your and Marc's RP- with these cats at closer focal distances/big crops they tend to very easily become crunchy. Their fur is coarse to the touch, but over sharpening makes it "harder"

Maybe only selective sharpening?

Send me PM next time you are around in the area…..

[Satish Ranadive]

Gorgeous portrait.

Regards,
Satish.