Shadow

[Andrew Aveley]

Taken on a recent safari in the Sabi Sands in South Africa. This young female was resting near a treed kill of a grey duiker. Any advise on improving the processing would be appreciated. Minor PP including usm . Use of shallow DOF intentional to emphasize the eyes. No crop. Used fill flash on 430ex on off shoe wimberley bracket.

Canon 1 D MK 3 , ISO 100 , F 5 , 1/400 sec with 500 F4 with wimberley head on mono pod

[Robert Amoruso]

Powerful gaze and up-close view makes for an impressive image. Strong light handled well both in exposure and getting the face w/o deep shadows.

[Hilary Hann]

Lovely close up of this leopard. I like the shallow dof and think you've processed it quite well.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Andrew, I think you did pretty well here with your composition and using the flash to open up the shadows. One question, did you shoot more frames with smaller apertures, I just ask because you captured such a strong expression here that I would have liked a frame with more DOF, for me the extra sharpness on the whiskers, nose, ears and outline of the leopards head that would have resulted would not have distracted from the powerful gaze at all. Well done with this shot, you certainly got the "look'.
cheers
Grant

[Harshad Barve]

One beautiful cat and image , excellent C & C from Robert and Grant
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Anfrew,

A Wimberley on a monopod, how does that work?

I would like to have seen a little more DOF.

[Rachel Hollander]

Andrew - I like the comp and the nice blue bg. Agree with the others that it would be interesting to see another with more DOF.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice work here Andrew - great frame-filling comp, sharpness and skill with the flash...agree with Grant, maybe a tad more DOF would have sufficed but I would still be happy with this...

[Andrew Aveley]

Thank you for the kind comments. I do indeed have smaller aperture frames but just like this one in specific because of the intense stare. Ken, it takes a little getting used to but when shooting from an open safari vehicle it works comfortably for me!