Young Tigress

[Nancy Bell]

Photographed in Tadoba Tiger Reserve with Harshad by my side. Harshad guided me & my husband on 11 wonderful safaris and we saw tigers on all but one. But this special moment came in the last 15 minutes of our last time in the reserve at the end of the day. A very exciting finale for me!!

The sun was setting fast and and I did not want to have too slow a SS if the tigress started to move quickly. However she very carefully padded toward us with her eyes fixed on some deer in the distance. My gosh, she was spectacular and I am smitten!

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 400 f4 DO IS + 1.4x on a beanbag
1/800, f5.6, ISO 1600

c & c most welcome

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Nancy, you were very privileged with your sightings and I am sure, Harshad did his best to introduce you to his extended family, his Tigers, and ensured you maximised your trip.

A classic, with the Tiger on the sandy path and I like the way she is looking away from camera, certainly more interested in the deer near by, rather than you. :bg3:

I would look at reducing the yellow overall and either adjusting the exposure levels and/or some Curves too as it does have a cast too it and it needs some more overall depth of tone. If, when you get the balance right you could also apply some more USM to the subject only. By doing so it should take it up a gear.

Good to know you had a great adventure, these are magnificent creatures and you will have very fond memories I'm sure. Hope to see more.

TFS
Steve

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you for the great suggestions Steve. Here is a repost.

[dankearl]

Very Nice Nancy, the repost looks great.
It sounds like a trip of a lifetime to me.
I too, look forward to more.

[Ken Watkins]

Nancy,

Not to sure about this one, firstly there seems to be some slight patches with lack of detail under the neck and further down the chest. The colours seem a little too red but may be my monitor.

Here is a rework

[Harshad Barve]

Nancy
It was RED evening for sure and we know that so OP colors for me ;)
Love the pose , compo and I may add little USM in OP
TFS

[Dumay de Boulle]

Colors slightly better in your repost but too yellow in Ken's...Image lacks fine detail its a little soft. But classic pose and good comp! Nice one Nancy!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Nancy, your repost is better, but like Dumay and I have mentioned, it still lacks the depth, detail & clarity which is in the image, but in a greater degree in the RAW file and just needs a little more coaxing out. Very difficult to extract from the web file posted, but this was where I was thinking of in the direction of the image last night when I wrote my reply, hopefully illustrating some of the points mentioned in the following replies.

Although not perhaps conveying the 'red light' Harshad spoke of, as you can only work with the OP, hopefully this may help in developing this image further. :wave:

cheers
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Nancy - nice pose. I agree about the detail and sharpness. Steve's repost really shows that the detail and quality is there, just needs to be extracted. Looking forward to more from your trip.

TFS,
Rachel

[Dumay de Boulle]

Steve really took it up a level. This image has good potential!

[Grant Atkinson]

This is an excellent tiger shot Nancy, and the clarity, and separation from the BG in Steves repost show it off a little closer to its full potential. What I really like is that you not only captured the tiger looking intent, but also with both ears up, which we don't seem to see that often, and that really adds to the level of interest that the tiger is showing. Makes it that bit better for me...well done.
cheers
Grant

[Ken Watkins]

but also with both ears up, which we don't seem to see that often,


I am bewildered by this comment on this pafge of the forum there are 9 or 10 Tiger images all have their ears up, I am pretty certain I have never seen an image with the ears down, perhaps Harshad can point me in the right direction?

[Steve Kaluski]

I am pretty certain I have never seen an image with the ears down, perhaps Harshad can point me in the right direction?

Harshad if you do, please keep it to a PM as this is now going Off Topic. Please keep all further comments to the OP.

[Morkel Erasmus]

What a lovely sighting, Nancy, I'm sure you were thrilled when in the moment and thrilled when looking back at these images on your computer at home.
I feel Steve's repost has the best presentation in terms of sharpness and colour. Yes, I wasn't there, just saying it as I see it here on this thread :bg3:.

I'm sure what Grant meant was that it's nice to see the ears up and directionally/attentively pointed at something with the tiger seemingly on high alert as opposed to the other relaxed tiger images we often see...:e3...now let's stick to the image, folks! :cheers:

[Nancy Bell]

Steve, just what technique did you use for your repost? Is this even more sharpening and more curves?? Something else?? If I had it to do over I would have removed the 1.4x as I prefer the 400 DO without it most times. Thanks all and it was a moment of a lifetime!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Nancy, firstly has the RP helped? If it has, in what direction(s) as it would be good to know for those that read the thread and see how, hopefully it has developed. I did a bit more than initially suggested only because of the subsequent RP's, however the initially thoughts would still get it to a point, but not to my RP.

However, if Harshad feels that the OP is correct then there seems little point in adding any more detail to the thread as he was there.

cheers
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Nancy
Like the composition of your image, the rest you can make a lot more out of it. In terms of contrast ,tone and sharpness.Steves repost i just really good conrastwise and tones.But Steve i think you have overdone it with the reds.Your repost reminds me to a time when i used Kodak Ektachrome 100 VS photographing tigers in Bhandhavgarh.Sorry i do not like them anymore,color wise .http://www.bilderload.com/bild/203580/tiger3401aS2XD8.jpg

After some thoughts i decided to make a repost.WDYT ? To all you guys out there :

Andreas

[Ken Watkins]

Andreas,

I agree with you that Steve#s post is much too red, Tigers are yellow. I think somewhere between your repost and mine would be ideal but yours is better:cheers:

How did you get the image over on the RHS?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, the main aim of the repost was to try and illustrate to Nancy that the image required extraction from the RAW file, offering more detail, sharpness and clarity so the subject was more pronounced and had a greater depth and character to it. :w3

Meant to add, working off-site last week as I was photographing, so was working on laptop, never ideal, buts as i said, the key point was about detail and that there is more within the original file than presented which hopefully Nancy can retrieve.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve
sorry i did not get the main aim on this post.but there was also a discussion of color ongoing ,so i was trying to jump on it.

Cheers Andreas