Male tiger | Bandhavgarh

[Harshad Barve]

Dear all
Made this in Bandhavgarh NP with 7D, 300/f4 , at f4 , 1/125 HH , nearly FF ISO 400
All C & C are welcome and much appreciated
Harshad

[Tom Graham]

V nice. Techs look spot on. What a marvelous and majestic animal!!
Would be tempted to clone out, or burn dark, the two diagonal branches top left. Would also try flipping left-right, the water might make a good lead in.
Tom

[Steve Kaluski]

Now that's better Harshad. :) Looks like you are still fighting light based on the 'Techs', what was the ISO640/800?

Would agree on the removal of the two strands of grass lhs (v easy), might just add a fraction of saturation to the Tiger only, plus if you use the Black eye dropper in Curves, click on a black patch near the eye, it just lifts it.

Keep the image as is, looks odd flipped.

Good to have you back.

TFS
Steve

[Harshad Barve]

Steve , ISO was 400 , added in OP too , Cant remove grass blades as you know I have stopped cloning , next time will try to create image without grass baldes:)

[Tom Graham]

Steve is right about I think adding a bit of contrast. Try it just a little contrast, makes it pop.
If you object to cloning then do "burning". Just make it some darker. "Burning" is no more "changing" an image than anything the camera or you do to it to make it visible. "Burning" and "dodging" are traditional and well accepted techniques for making prints. Which is what we had before the internet - I can remember those days :) You're probably not familiar with the famous American landscape photgrapher Ansel Adams. He wrote some really good instructional books on making prints. (As well as proper exposure of film). He worked in B&W prints but his craft and techniques in making those is still useful for us today for making jpgs. And he was the master at burning and dodging prints.
Tom

[Steve Kaluski]

Sorry HB, read too quickly;)

Respect your position on 'cloning' , it's so easy to make an image not what it was. ;)

FYI Apparently it was the portrait of US President Abraham Lincoln, taken in 1860, is one of the first cases of serious fakery - it's actually a composite of Lincoln's head grafted onto someone else's body.

Anyway, enough, before another image is hi jacked and goes off the rails.

Thanks
HB :)

[Dumay de Boulle]

WOW...Beautiful image Harshad. The detail and eyes are superb!

[Ken Watkins]

Harshad,

If this is almost FF, I would have a go at cropping a lot from the left hand side and a bit from the top.

Cheers

Ken

[Rachel Hollander]

Harshad -Great image of a beautiful animal. I agree with Ken that a crop off the top, maybe bringing it down to right around where the brighter green grass starts, will get rid of most of those two branches. I respect the no cloning position and keep wrestling with it myself.

Rachel

[Stu Bowie]

Harshadbhai, you keep turning them out - wonderful images one by one. I like the posture, low angle, and with him lying in the water puts this over the top.

[Arthur Morris]

The cat is loverly. The techs look spot on to me. The behavior is well, cool. Do I wish for a cleaner setting without all those grasses? Sure.

Ken, are you suggesting that this be cropped to a front end portrait without the hind-quarters?

[Ken Watkins]

Artie,

In the absence of cloning this is what I am suggesting may be worthwhile, but I have not tried it myself.

Cheers

Ken

[Danny J Brown]

HB - I really love this one with its feet in the water and the look on the face is awesome. One of my favorite of your tigers of late.

DB

[Tom Graham]

Making another plea for good old fashioned, like your grandpa did in his "dark room", burning.
Here is original with burning in of the two branches, the large clumps of grass in front, other light grass, and the four frame edges burned in slightly. ONLY burning, NO cloning. If some of it looks a little "rough", well it took me about 10 minutes. However - this is my very first attempt at an animated gif, so lets hope it works. First frame original, second framed with my burning.
.
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/2dc74cb49f7e47906861af5dc1ad56a46g.jpg
.
IMHO, if -burning- is objectionable, then you should take the JPG the camera gives you - period. No RAW, no cropping, no nothing :)
Tom

[Harshad Barve]

Thanks for the effort Tom , much appreciated

[Morkel Erasmus]

what an absolute beaut of an image Bhai!! this specimen makes me want to book my air tickets and go to Bandhavgarh with you :)

I have also started leaning towards no cloning and have not done cloning to remove anything but dust spots in a very long time...

[Harshad Barve]

Artie,

In the absence of cloning this is what I am suggesting may be worthwhile, but I have not tried it myself.

Cheers

Ken

I tried it and looks good to my eyes , let me know how it has come up

[Ken Watkins]

I tried it and looks good to my eyes , let me know how it has come up

It looks very good to my eyes:D

I might even take just a little off the right.

[Rahul Sachdev]

Looks great to my eyes :)

[Harshad Barve]

Thanks everyone , I have posted one trip report here http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=507802#post507802 (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=507802#post507802)