The Caracal

[Gregor Bergquist]

Photo taken a early morning in Masai Mara, Kenya. Slightly cropped and levels adjusted in LR3. Love to get critique and comments.

Nikon D3, Nikon 600mm @ ISO 3200, f/4, 1/500s, EV -2/3

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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gregor, nice image, love the space and placement of the subject, got to love those classic ears.

Although viewing on the laptop so I might not be quite spot on :bg3: but I feel the image is a little to warm in the Red & Yellow. If I am right, then a reduction in those channels in Saturation and a slight adjustment in Colour balance making it slightly cooler in colour. I won't add my reworked version. :w3

Hope others chip in to get there thoughts too.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Classic composition here Gregor, with a good low angle. My initial reaction was the same as Steve's - just a tad overcooked on red and yellow, and easy to fix :t3.
A cat I have not seen enough of (only twice in the wild in all my years of visiting the bush)...

[Rachel Hollander]

Gregor - nice sighting and I like the comp. Good suggestions above about the color. I still haven't seen a caracal in the wild.

TFS,
Rachel

[v.p.nurdeen]

Hi Gregor,
I love those ears :S3:
VPN

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi everyone. I´m really thankful for your comments, and I have learned a lot just participating and following this forum for a short period of time. I have re-processed the picture, and toned down the colortemp (I guess mainly red and yellow). My memory of the cat is that he (or she) was quite colorful. Maybe it is just my memory... It was a early morning with generally pale colors.

I agree that in the first post it has a little to much red/yellow, but I don´t really like this either (actually I like the first post better). I have worked this picture around, but don't get it so I really like it.

Re post:

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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gregor, it' can be difficult at times to get things spot on, however I think somewhere between the OP & the re post, but as I mentioned, I am away so others that have a proper calibrated monitor may be able to offer a better response.

This was my original thought if it helps.

Look forward to seeing more soon.

cheers
Steve

[Tom Graham]

Like Steve's re-post best so far.
Here's my 2 cents -
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Just changed original "Color Balance".
Maybe mostly what this all shows is difference in monitor settings?
Tom

[Harshad Barve]

I would love to have this in my file , big congrats
TFS

[dankearl]

Very cool looking animal, I agree with the others on the color, I think Steve's repost is nice and also Tom's, although they are both very different.
I would run a round of NR of the BG.

[Gregor Bergquist]

Thank you all for helping me with this one. I appreciate it a lot. I now have made a second repost. Hope you have patience with me and have a look at this one again. This one I think is more natural in colors. NR on bg was applied pretty much already on my first repost.

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[Tom Graham]

Wow, are our colors all over the map!!!!
Here is image I pulled off of google search, sunlight, cat is very brown color -
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Tom

[Gregor Bergquist]

Yepp, the colors are everywhere.

But I don´t think "my" caracal is that brown.

I have put the RAW-file on this link if anyone wants a try.

http://www.psykologbergquist.se/caracal.NEF

I´m not sure if this is downloadable, I hope so.

[Tom Graham]

Thanks, NEF downlaoded fine for me. Put it into Bibble 5 at "flat" setting and got this (no cropping) -
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Tom

[Tom Graham]

still in Bibble but changing only the White balance temperature from the original of 5189 to 8105 gives this color change -
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[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Tom

Thanks a lot for helping out.
For my taste I like the original colortemperature better (but with just a tad more exposure), or a color temperature that is a little red/warm. Still I ´m not satisfied with the versions we have done here.

[Ignacio Yufera]

Any wild Caracal photo is an acievement, and this is way above the average. Love the relaxed expression and the soft tones around it.

Like many wild cats, caracals can vary a lot in shade of color, from pale sandy to almost chestnut. Somehow I feel Tom's last repost looks more natural, although I don't think the original is bad either. Very nice shot in any case.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Wish it were mine !!! Just perfect !! Agree with the red channel being overtly strong . Tried a hand at correcting it .

[Sachin Saraf]

I really liked the Rakesh's post with tad less saturation on green channel.

No matter what, you have a winner in your profile......try and play with color till you get it perfect...it is worth putting extra effort to get this one correct.

[Ken Watkins]

Fabulous to get one of these in daylight , a rarity indeed. I think that Rakesh's repost reflects the "normal" colour best