This image was taken at Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. The light was pretty hash at mid day, but the cubs were under the shade of a tree.
1DX
500f4 II
1/500
f8
ISO-500
Manual Exposure
BLUBB bean bag from safari vehicle
Lifted shadow a little bit using Curves
Removed a small red dot (I think a morsel of meat from the kill) on one of the cub's forehead.
Selective sharpening on one of the cub's face.
Always good to see them getting their fill, Loi.
I appreciate the challenge of shooting through dense foliage and you did well in getting the main cheetah's face in the clear. The other one isn't adding that much for me in terms of content (with it being cut off and behind the foliage), so I'd crop it out, go tighter. There also seems to be a green cast overall, not too hard to remove. I would also dodge some of the shadows and midtones on the face of the main cheetah to draw the viewer there (without making it look unnatural).
Looking forward to much more from your African safari!
nice image. Morkel gave you already some suggestions. I wonder that the chest and paws of the main Cheetah are not quite "that" sharp while shooting with f8! For me the head looks tac sharp/ even more like wet, from the nose till the end of the ears. As I can imagine the head is over the legs/paws, those need a bit more sharpness. That is just my feel on this!
Thank you all for your feedback. I thought the second cub would add some interest, but apparently not. Not sure how much better with cropping tight though. Will need to spend some time with this I age later this week. Loi
Tough image to work with. That little shrub in front of the LH cheetah really makes it hard for you to compose nicely. I think you did OK, but perhaps this is one of those images that you keep for the memory but you know that you can't really work on it to improve it much. Nice sighting and seems like you were trying the right ideas, just didn't work out this time. (I have quite a few like this - I think we all do!!)
Ed