Finally

[Dumay de Boulle]

I finally have a Leopard image that I am happy with. I have had many opportunities but there was always something not right weather it be lighting, grass over the face, and the list goes on...I got lucky enough to see this Female and her 2 year old son on both drives yesterday . Conditions were not perfect but I tried to make the best of the situation. I put on the 500 and went for the portrait which gave great BOKEH, and there was a patch of very thick bush to the right of the Leopard and it was not as clear as this OOF BG I have achieved here (It would have been too busy and a different color).

Canon 1D MKIII
Canon 500 f4 L IS
AV f5
TV 1/200
ISO 800
AWB
RAW file processed in CS5 iMac

Crits as always appreciated:S3:

[Robert Amoruso]

I agree, this one works exceptionally well. The far-off gaze, unobtrusive BG, good IQ and DOF.

[Ofer Levy]

This is a lovely portrait!! I love it. Just converted to sRGB and moved the colour balance toward yellow a tiny bit. WDYT?

[Brendon Cremer]

Fantastic image, really one to be proud of, stunning detail well exposed and well composed. The colour in the repost is a little too warm, but your may be a little too cool but not far off so maybe something in between. Love the clarity in the eye too:w3

Is this Twin Spot?

[Rachel Hollander]

Dumay - lovely portrait with great detail and sharpness. I agree the clean bokeh looks great. The comp works well. Congrats!

TFS,
Rachel

[Harshad Barve]

this is outstanding image but I like it as posted , I won't change anything
TFS

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Dumay , love the OP as is !!! I know this is one elusive cat , which you should be proud to have captured so nicely !!

[DanWalters]

Beautiful portrait and great detail. Like the repost, adds a little warmth to the image.

[BenBotha]

I like the original post. Stunning photo, I know how difficult they are to photograph.

Ben

[Marina Scarr]

A stunner in every way. Love the details you achieved here. I can why it is everything you were trying to achieve. I prefer the OP.

[Stu Bowie]

Hey mate, I can see why you are chuffed with this. Superb portrait, tack sharp, and the detail is incredible. When it comes together, it sure to be a winner. :w3 Congrats.

[gail bisson]

Simply superb Dumay! I think a color balance between your OP and Ofer's would be perfect. I wish this was mine. Congrats on getting THE shot!
Gail

[Dumay de Boulle]

Thanks for the comments folks...Ofer, I find yours a tad warm, too orange so I am reposting it somewhere in between. I am not sure why you say you converted to sRGB as I always convert to sRGB when saving my JPEG. I started using Steve K's method (The sticky on top of the Wildlife Critique forum)about a year ago and since have never had a col issue again. Mine is always set to 'convert sRGB'... Thanks for taking the time to improve it though, your input is always appreciated.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Fantastic image, really one to be proud of, stunning detail well exposed and well composed. The colour in the repost is a little too warm, but your may be a little too cool but not far off so maybe something in between. Love the clarity in the eye too:w3

Is this Twin Spot?

Thanks for the comment Brendan....Yup its her, had her twice yesterday (in the morning and afternoon) with her Male cub, he's not such a cub anymore though.

[Ofer Levy]

I am not sure why you say you converted to sRGB as I always convert to sRGB when saving my JPEG. I started using Steve K's method (The sticky on top of the Wildlife Critique forum)about a year ago and since have never had a col issue again. Mine is always set to 'convert sRGB'... .
Hi Dumay, when I open your image in Photoshop it doesn't have the sRGB embeded. When I view it in here (I use Internet Explorer) colours look dull and flat. There is a lot of discussion about it recently.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Dumay there have been some great cat images on the forum lately and this one is superb with excellent IQ. Prefer your original post though, well done.

[Jay Gould]

Dumay, you should be happy with that capture. YOUR RP wins for me.

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Dumay - check out this thread:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/89071

[Brendon Cremer]

Thats great, saw her quite a bit when i used to visit chapungu quite regulaly. Love you RP work great!

On the Adobe RGB / Srgb thing if you are converting to Srgb then the way you are doing it is not working as your images are always Adobe RGB when i open them? I myself convert my image to Srgb before posting but recently had as issue as you saw with my yellow billed stork where areas looked blown but i could not understand this as my master file in Adobe RGB had no indications of this, i have since discovered through the link Ofer provided that this is due to the conversion to the Srgb conversion, however when i post the image in Adobe RGB the colours are not accurate as Ofer quite rightly says. So the battle of the 2 evils, my opinion is make sure there are no clippings in the master files and post in Srgb as the colours are more accurate and if told there are areas blown, put it down to the conversion to Srgb and dont stress.:w3

[dankearl]

Dumay, I like them all. You should be proud, it is a great portrait, the whiskers and the eye is just superb.

[Marc Mol]

Ticks all the boxes here Dumay, very nice here with fine detail and superb BG.:cheers:


Thanks for the comments folks...Ofer, I find yours a tad warm, too orange so I am reposting it somewhere in between. I am not sure why you say you converted to sRGB as I always convert to sRGB when saving my JPEG. I started using Steve K's method (The sticky on top of the Wildlife Critique forum)about a year ago and since have never had a col issue again. Mine is always set to 'convert sRGB'... Thanks for taking the time to improve it though, your input is always appreciated.

When I loaded your OP into my CS5 Dumay it's showing as untagged RGB.
Have a look at this recent discussion here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/87951-Got-Grass

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/86502-Keeping-a-watchful-eye-on-me-common-loon-and-chick?highlight=srgb

In photoshop, check edit -> color settings and check the boxes:
Profile mismatches: Ask when opening
Missing profiles: Ask when opening

Cheers
Marc

[Morkel Erasmus]

Late to the party here Dumay...awesome portrait with oodles of detail and lovely soft light...so glad for you mate! :bg3:

I agree the colour space issue has been covered over and again and there have been some very useful threads. Arash said in Artie's thread that users of Firefox/Safari will be able to see images posted in Adobe RGB (or other RGB colour spaces for that matter I would assume) in true colours, but that Internet Explorer users will see a big difference. I for took your image, converted to sRGB and loaded both into a web browser one did not see any difference between your OP and the sRGB version I converted, probably because I use FireFox. I am not sure about Google Chrome - does anyone know if it can correctly display the Adobe RGB colour space?

I think Ofer is an IE user and therefore he keeps seeing the big difference. Nonetheless I always convert to sRGB - when using 'save for web' I make sure the boxes are ticked that says "convert to sRGB" and "embed colour space" :w3

[Brendon Cremer]

You are quite right Morkel. IE users will see a huge difference, i use google chrome at that too shows a substantial difference. I feel the majority of people out there are using programs other than Firefox or safari, therefore i would think its a good idea to make Converting to Srgb mandatory or at least highly recommended to create uniformity, whereby everyone no mater what program is being used sees the same image. Baring screen calibration of course:w3

[Craig Kerr]

Love the crisp detail on the cat Dumay... Composition and that back-ground complete a stunning photo...
You finding your Kruger legs ?? :w3

[stuart wanuck]

niceley done

[Rudi van den Heever]

Just need to add my congrats Dumay! Super image!:Whoa!:

Still need to get my first so I am very very jealous!!!:e3

[Dumay de Boulle]

Thanks all for the comments..>I will try converting to sRGB and hope my next posts will have that color profile embedded.