Leopard

[Chris van Rooyen]

I captured this image last year, using only the spotlight, as I wanted the warm colours. I ran a multiply blend with a layer mask to reduce the overall brightness of the image and selectively reduced the effect of the blend by painting on the leopard and the background with a brush. I was lucky to get a few sharp images given the very low shutter speed.

Camera Model: NIKON D3
Date/Time: 2009:08:23 17:46:14
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec
Aperture: 4
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 3200
Lens: 200 to 400mm
Focal length: 280mm

[Harshad Barve]

Majestic cat and excellent pose Chris , lovely stare and PP work to
Just out of curiosity , Have your tried vertical compo
TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Chris, you have done well under the conditions, plus the PP work. Might be worth a try as HB has suggested, or I might like just to see a tighter crop in landscape. Loosing some from the top and r/h up to where the green stem is finishing, might work better?

[Danny Laredo]

Chris, love the PP work here, the whole setting with the light makes it very dramatic. Love the eye contact.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Fantastic stare! Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Arthur Morris]

Powerful. I love the COMP as is. Remarkable without flash. And creative. Did you get my last e-mail? Are we good to go for Bosque?

[David Fletcher]

Ditto Artie. (not sucking up here... don't need to... he knows where he's at, and I personally love the space and inclusion of habitat. adds so much. said so in a post a few moments back....). :D. Brilliant PS work Chris. Remember the other version from this, which was top drawer too. Thanks for sharing info, as personally wouldn't have thought of that for probably a couple of years. :D. Blessings to you and your loved ones for 2010.

[Sid Garige]

Excellent job. Really like that post light feel. Comp is wonderful too.

[Danny J Brown]

Chris - What a striking image you have here!!!! All the techs are perfect but its the image itself that is so awesome, even by the high standards of BPN. Great start to the new year.

[Marc Mol]

Great use of spotlight here & low ISO, nice comp. A very pleasing image, like your previous version.
Gotta love that D3 Chris!;)
TFSA

[Ken Watkins]

Chris,

A perfect image to illustrate the need for higher ISO in certain circumstances, to my mind the spotlight lighting is so much better than flash.

Aardvark next?

[DanWalters]

Like how only the leopard is in the light and the rest of the scene is in shadow.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated:)

[Callie de Wet]

Uitstekend, Chris, soos al jou werk. I especially like his "not pleased" expression and the movement of the left front paw.

[peter delaney]

Hmmmm... excellent image mr van Rooyen... love the composition , space really adds to overall feeling ...and not a bird insight:eek:

happy new year

peter