Cutie Pie Cub

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Another frame of the cute lil leopard cub from Timbavati, SA. Image was tad soft to begin with (poor light, slowish SS) and some PP work in DPP and PS did help bring out some nice improvement. Cropped to vertical to add focus to subject. The pose was too cool (tongue sticking out, intent gaze) to let go of the image, so sharing this moment with you all.
5D III
500mm
1/320
f/4
ISO 3200

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, you certainly were lucky with your Leopard sightings on this trip, very envious, just hope I can get 10% of what you saw next year in Bots. :S3:

The techs, well that's been covered off earlier, I might move the whole crop a tad more to the left, for me it's a wee bit tight and would remove the white branch on the RHS. I would also look to darken the top ULC and so reduce the highlight on the old log. Also just pull back a bit the colour in the tongue, looks very red to me. If you have PSCC2015 or CS6 (I think) then using the tools there I would remove the blade of grass arching over the head, if you need pointers let me know. The low POV is great, and a nice perspective.

TFS
Steve

[Marc Mol]

Love the pose, low POV and cuteness factor here Sanjeev, good PP advice from Steve above, although the tongue colour does look OK to me I think it gives the appearance of over being saturated against the soft/muted colour/tones of the vegetation.

TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - What a cutie! Love the low pov and pose with the tongue out. You did a nice job salvaging the image though if it were mine I would back off the sharpening on the ear and top of the head. Looks like the cub enjoyed a meal recently. Good suggestions by Steve and Marc though personally I wouldn't remove the blade of grass :S3:.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Sanjeev

Love this Cutie!
Would be tempted to lie next him/her if mom wasn't around....:t3

To me the Raspberry tongue is a bit too much red, would do Sat layer on tongue.
Agree with Steve to darken ULC- lights tend to draw the eye.
For my taste I would crop tighter from the bottom, I do not mind SQ crops..
Just check Sharpening- would extent mask to include the sand heap at lower opacity @ left front paw--looks a bit processed..( would actually tone down overall a bit)

Stunning moment captured-well spotted!
:cheers:

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sanjeev leaving the known and obvious technical issues aside , the little " Cutie Pie" is a priceless great subject and for sure a pleasure to watch in reality .

Enjoyed watching the frame , TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- I too enjoyed watching this frame , as technically it has flaws and certainly you are doing way better , but a great subject and TFS !