Leopard look back.

[Marc Mol]

One from the archives here, this female was spotted only a few hundred meters
from our bushcamp, some branches cloned out, NR on BG applied and approx 30% crop.
D2Xs 300f/2.8 1/640s f/2.8 ISO800 Mwamba bushcamp, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia. 2007

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

http://africaddict.smugmug.com/Nature/SthLuangwa-NP-Zambia-2007/mfm1412a/846899360_SfWut-XL.jpg

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marc, Lovely look back pose, and as I scrolled down your image, I was hoping you included the full tail ;) - well done, you did. Well framed between the two parts of tree, and I like the mottled coloured BG. Overall, nice and sharp too.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Beautiful image of a beautiful animal lovely natural colours and sharp detail. And a pleasing BG

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Marc, nice pose and I too, love the looking back look.

The small tree in the foreground is rather irritating, however changing position you would not have had the angle or probably cropped the tail so you have made the best of it. Might look at replicating some of the BG to remove the white hotspots top rh corner. Sharp yes, but it looks as if it has a slight/fraction yellow cast, but might be me?:confused: Not sure if in Saturation you drop the Hue -4, Colour balance 1, 4.

Always good to see these animalas.

TFS
Steve;)

[Egil Droge]

Nice pose, too bad of the branch in the front.
I love the mwamba area, get to see quite a lot of luangwa rarities there (leopard not being one of them though).
Do you mind if I copy this image to keep for our leopard database? I just checked and we don't know this animal yet, would be leopard nr 29.

[Todd Frost]

Nice over-the-shoulder pose Marc. Made the best from your position. Agree with Steve on the cast. Fg branch is pity, but this would stay in my files :D. TFS
Todd

[Morkel Erasmus]

Marc I just love the pose and eye contact here, but there's definitely a green and yellow cast here. I also feel the leopard could "pop" more.

I'm sure you won't mind, so I gave it a whack.

*STEPS*
Color Balance:
Magenta/Green - moved 5 points toward magenta for shadows, highlights and midtones
Yellow/Blue - moved 5 points toward blue for shadows highlights and midtones

Selective Color:
+3 blacks in black and neutral channels

Local Contrast Enhancement:
USM @ 20%, 10px

what do you think?

[Steve Kaluski]

Morkel, certainly pops, but I would say there is too much magenta now. Check BG on rhs & tree trunk.

Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Steve - I see your point, I think desaturating the magentas will sort it out quick-quick :)
I would also try and darken some of the brights spots in the BG

[Ed Cordes]

Lovely over the shoulder look with great eyes. Kind of a seductress pose. I like Morkel's repost and agree toning down the magenta a few points wild make it great. Branch on left is not as annoying to me as it is life and in life it is there.

[Marc Mol]

Steve - I see your point, I think desaturating the magentas will sort it out quick-quick :)
I would also try and darken some of the brights spots in the BG

Thanks Morkel

Looking back now and remembering I always had to adjust the WB on the D2XS, it always had a tendency (in Auto) for warmer colour.
My resubmission attempt here with the bright BG spots darkened also.

http://africaddict.smugmug.com/Nature/SthLuangwa-NP-Zambia-2007/mfm1412a/848020731_CSBoo-XL.jpg

[Harshad Barve]

Cant commnet on colors as I am in cybercafe of Bandhavgarh :)
One impressive image with excellent lookback pose and awesome detais,
TFS