Tiger Portrait

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Here is another frame for the theme. This is the same tiger I had posted in my previous post. He strolled out and came closer and closer and then paused and stopped near a tree giving some lovely photo ops. The previous image was a bit flat due to the poor light and I did not want to push it too much. Steve did a fine job of enhancing it but in reality the scene was pretty low in contrast and colour (also due to dust as more jeeps scrambled in)
I hope you like this better.
5D III
500 II
1/40 (rested the lens on my raised knee in the vehicle)
f/4
ISO 3200

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- Definitely I liked this better ! I think you might have posted this sometime last year if I am not wrong but anyways this is a good image considering the light and ss , i think you got away with it but this is with most of the Tiger sightings and I am pretty sure had it been now you would have raised that iso to much higher levels . But overall i liked the flehmen response and lovely looking Tiger , colours look good and unlike the previous image this image has better contrast .

TFS !

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks Haseeb. I had posted a similar image but different frame earlier. The Tiger was facing more towards the camera then. This is bit more oblique HA. Glad you liked this better.

[Marc Mol]

You've down well here Sanjeev, considering the not ideal balancing knee act, did you not have access to a bean bag? Certainly a higher ISO would have been the way to go,

I gather light was at a premium?

TFS

[keith mitchell]

Sanjeev think you did remarkably well reading your tecs on this,lovely facial detail with those fine whiskers.

Keith.

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Sanjeev

Another stunning moment captured!
You really pushed it with those specs!
It takes Big B**ls to shoot a 500 at 1/40, even with VR engaged, and on knee...:eek3:

I took the liberty to do RP:
There was no detail behind ears on body- cropped.(short DOF with high ISO)
Tree in BG was distracting a lot, tried to lessen effect. (too dark, too close)
Selective sharpening.
5 min job- no blurring of masks, no LR etc- it is just to give you my take.
If your image can take the bigger crop, try from RAW.
It has more impact this way, cropping away the non essential bits that takes away from this awe inspiring image.
This is just my humble opinion.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - Certainly looks like a healthy looking tiger. I like that you can see the taste buds on the tongue. You definitely did well at the slow ss. Please don't forget to include EC when it is available. The EXIF shows +1.67 so it must have been low light even though the tiger came out a bit more. I agree with Andre that the short dof and high ISO has cost you some detail. I do find the brighter leaf coming from the jaw distracting. Andre has cloned it out. Up to you whether that is something you want to do or would prefer to lessen its impact in other ways. I like Andre's crop alternative.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thank you everyone. Andre, your RP is excellent. Thanks for your inputs, will work accordingly. Rachel, yes I intentionally over exposed due to low light, will add that info in future. I intended to ETTR but may have gone a bit too far without checking histogram. These moments are so fleeting that I seldom think of checking it in fear of losing a rare moment.
Just to share with you all, the worlds first white tiger (albino) safari has just been opened in Madhya Pradesh in India. A rare chance for us to see this unique variant in the wild. Till now white tigers were only seen in captivity.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Great sharpness for the SS used!
I like Andre's crop but also don't mind your OP presentation. Would have been worth if going to ISO6400 here for more DOF or SS...but you did well nonetheless.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sanjeev, love the intense aggression shown here, and excellent detail on the tongue. Great work with such a slow ss, and I quite like Andre's additional sharpening.