Smile

[Brendon Cremer]

A portrait of a leopard we spent a morning with as she moved through her territory, we witnessed her making her territory, smelling around and showing her flehmin face as well as hunting, stalking and even a few chases on impala and even a young Kudu calf, eventually she caught a mongoose which was really great to see.

Chitabe Camp, Okavango, Botswana

Camera

NIKON D3S

Focal Length

400mm

Shutter

1/500 secs

Aperture

f/5.6

ISO/Film
Flash

500
SB900 -1.7 EV

[Loi Nguyen]

Brendon, this is a spectacular portrait with great colors and sharpness. Love her teeth and the red tongue, the fur in her ear, the bright eye, and the lovely BG. Loi

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is indeed a beautiful portrait Brendon, vivid BG and I like the subject's pose, image sharp where it counts; the lower jaw seems a tad softer than the rest-I like this effect, it suggests movement. Stunning colours

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Brendon - nice portrait with good detail. I do think you needed a bit more ss to freeze the action as the ears look sharper than the face and mouth. I'm curious as to your use of flash since it was taken in the morning. Can you describe the conditions a bit more or why you chose to use fill flash?

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brendon, seeing a larger version of this helps certainly, but it has confirmed my original thoughts and the sharpness isn't quite there in the face. As Rachel commented, the era is sharp, the mouth is not. Based on the techs you had SS so again, I too am curious about the flash, if you did just want some fill-in then I think it's a little too much, but...

I do like the rich and mottle BKG, works well to set-off the subject, nicely framed too.

TFS
Steve

[Brendon Cremer]

Thanks very much guys. Rachel and Steve, yes indeed a little more speed would have certainly helped in getting the lower jaw sharp as well, i guess it was just one of those in the moment mistakes The rest of the face is very sharp in the original so have added a little more selective sharpening there and RP. My reasoning for the flash was fairly simple, she was lying on a fallen down tree with a heavy set branch right above her and to her left creating a dark shadow over her although the sun was shining on the bg vegetation, the light was pretty harsh by this time almost 11am so i pretty much exposed for the bg vegetation a used flash to light her in the shade. Hope this helps, i will post a full body shot of her where she was lying in a few days.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I agree with the initial crits, thanks for expounding Brendon.
Repost is sharper - also could have been a factor of aperture, depending on how close she was, f5.6 may have been too shallow?

[edwardselfe]

Yeah, I agree that the flash might have been a bit too much, but your thinking was good and you very nearly pulled it off! I might darken shadows slightly to give a more natural look but keep the lovely glint in the eye. Must master the balancing of flash one of these days - Brendon you seem to be a master at it.
Ed

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Brendon,

great portrait of this Leopard. The RP does it for me. There is nothing else to add, the others brought in already everything

Have a great eve

Ciao
Anette