Common Leopard

[Harshad Barve]

Dear All
I have decided to search, search and search for Leopards , will visit Africa , TATR , South and North India, Laddakh and want to make one of the best collection of Leopard images,
Indian, Snow and Clouded Leopards are on check list

Made this in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra with D300 , 600mm, ISO 200 :eek: , at F4 , 1/40 , beanbag in feb 2009, For me , it took real time and efforts to boost ISO beyond 200:)
All C & C are most welcome and much appreciated
Harshad

[Ken Watkins]

Harshad,

It does not look common to me, I find it quite posh.

Have you selective sharpened as to me it looks a little like the Leopard has been placed in front of the BG, I say this because the edges seem too refined:confused:

Good luck with your Leopard hunting, they are everywhere (including here) but difficult to spot and tend not to offer good oppurtunities that often.

[Harshad Barve]

Hi Ken , Thnx
I have applied shrapness to entire image and then mild (0.3 pix ) Gaussian blurr on BG for web size , here is image before blurring BG ,
BTW for print size blurring was not needed

PS , This image is not converted in sRGB

[Ken Watkins]

Harshad,

I think this totally disproves my idea, it is very strange to me at least to get such good separation. Perhaps it is good light and the predominately black edges in particular along the back.
Still a very nice image though;)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I like the eye contact and open mouth pose. The image is soft, perhaps due to the low light and low shutter speed. The repost is better. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Harshad Barve]

may be blurr of 600/f4 at F4 here is RAW

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Harshad, I agree, good looking Leopard, but guess he likes his own space judging on his reaction. Nice pose and it sits well in the frame.

I think Sabyasachi is right about the low light, also I have noticed that by using any form of NR it does make the BG so perfect that in fact the subject just pops out, almost like a cutout, giving a false impression and perhaps NR needs to be used carefully, or at least sparingly. As Kens repost has illustrated, in fact that a little noise in the BG makes the whole image more authentic IMHO. :)

TFS
Steve

[Harshad Barve]

. As Kens repost has illustrated, in fact that a little noise in the BG makes the whole image more authentic IMHO. :)



I have ZERO problmes with some noise in BG , I always apply NR for webs only , BTW I am unable to see repost of Ken or is it just me :confused:

[David Thomasson]

This is very nice, Harshad. I'm looking forward to seeing images from your leopard hunt! :cool:

Instead of using G/blur on the background, an alternative trick is to use a curves adjustment layer to "fade" the background a bit.
This pulls the subject out without having to brighten the subject or increase saturation (because flattening the curve reduces background
saturation). If you apply that effect with a gradient, the unaltered foreground will keep the cat "anchored" so it doesn't look pasted in.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/7342/tricks.jpg

I used your unblurred version but converted to sRGB. No color adjustments on this. I also took out some of the little details in the background above the cat's head.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3882/leopard.gif

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9521/leopardy.jpg

[Harshad Barve]

Thanks a ton for tip David , You are master blaster in PS

[Egil Droge]

David,

How do you get to your first image? The curves one. Have you selected the foreground and leopard first? How to make a quick and good selection?

[Egil Droge]

Very nice leopar btw Harshad!
Are they easily viewable in India? Never seen such an exposed leopard from India.
I've only seen 5 leopards so far this year (since half March), living in one of the African capitals of leopards viewing...South Luangwa.

[Harshad Barve]

Very nice leopar btw Harshad!
Are they easily viewable in India?

They are very elusive and shy in India. I guess they share preybase and habitat with tiger keeping them all the time on toes

[Todd Frost]

Beautiful leopard Harshad. Good luck on your quest. Nice tip from David (agree, he is a master of ps) TFS
Todd

[David Thomasson]

David,

How do you get to your first image? The curves one. Have you selected the foreground and leopard first? How to make a quick and good selection?

For a subject like this, quick mask works pretty well. You just paint carefully around the inside edges and then fill in the
middle. If you aren't familiar with quick mask, check on Google. There are lots of tutorials, and it's an easy tool to learn.
It simply allows you to paint an area with a paint brush and then covert that with one keystroke (Q) into a selection with
marching ants. With that you can create a layer mask.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7500/maskr.gif

[Stu Bowie]

Super pose and eye contact Harshadbhai. Your comp works well too. David is so clued with his tips.

[Egil Droge]

Thanks a lot david!

[Egil Droge]

They are very elusive and shy in India. I guess they share preybase and habitat with tiger keeping them all the time on toes

In most areas in Africa they're shy and elusive too, but in some areas they are not so difficult to see. Like here, in South Luangwa, where they have to compete for prey with lions, hyaenas and wild dogs.

[Danny Laredo]

Superb pose and eye contact.