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Thread: Focused Cheetah mom

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    Default Focused Cheetah mom

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    Came across this mother with two young cubs sitting on a termite mound around midday. She suddenly realised there was an animal in my land rover (my Ridgy). She focused on him for ages and then came down and walked towards us concentrating intently on Shangaan. I was really surprised at how close she came up to us. Shangaan just focused on her himself but never moved. It got so intense I actually put the camera down and stood up on my seat. She just ignored me but stopped any further movement towards us. A few moments later she turned around and walked off.

    HH
    canon 1D MK IV - 300mm f2.8 plus 2 X extender MK III
    ISO 800, f13, 1/800 sec - Why f13 - was going through a whole lot of settings when she suddenly moved and I knew she was heading our way.

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    Please feel free to C&C, Thanks

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    Hi Carl

    Cheetahs is always lovely, and got to love their amber eyes. There is something with the comp that I think donīt work. For me a cheetah is a slender and gracile animal. With this comp the body looks big and bulky. I donīt really either like the turned/centered head. You donīt have her in a other angle, or a other (less) crop?

    TFS / Gregor

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    Carl,

    Always great to have a cheetah walking this close, especially with those amber eyes.

    I would have to agree with Gregor on comp, though wanted to add some thoughts PP wise:

    1) There is a lot of magenta running through the image. I would suggest heading back to the RAW and checking the WB - try using the dropper to find a neutral target to use.

    2) The blacks are a little choked, and I think a curves adjustment can help bring out some more of the detail.

    3) I found de-saturating and exposure of the grass a touch certainly helped

    4) I would watch for the halos alone the scruff of the neck and also the right ear - easy to fix.


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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Carl, great when you have 'personal' encounters like this, but when they are so brief and intense sometimes the 'techs' can go a little AWOL, or easily knocked, however both of you are safe. Your dog must be incredibly well trained ?

    Parking the techs to one side, the blacks as Russell mentioned are choked and very 'glossy'. The image does look 'thin' in tonal depth, however I quite like the saturation of the OP, but it's probably a combination of both the OP & RP. At f/13 I certainly would have expected more detail and better form structure. I also agree with Russell about the WB, easy to do and you can them adjust accordingly, however based on the OP I think you need to adjust both Red & Magenta in various amounts. I would also look at a square crop, old habits die hard as I hated that format, but things change and I think you could be surprised with how it looks.

    Hope you have better luck next time which may also include the cubs.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Carl - good story and glad it resolved without actual confrontation between the cheetah and Shangaan. You've gotten excellent comments and suggestions above. Only thing I wanted to add is that the whites look very gray to me.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Default Reost

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    Thanks Gregor,Russel, Steve and Rachel for the input. Russel thanks for the repost. I tried to follow your points and I hope this is a bit better. Let me know. Steve I tried the square crop but I am not sure if I like it yet. Rachel not sure why its grey but I made a new layer to soft light blend mode and used the brush to 30% and painted the white areas and then adjusted opacity. Not sure if it is too obvious now. Let me know please. Thanks all

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    It still has some red cast here. I'm blaming Rachel for that . As I was about to repost I saw your comment on the whites so decided to go back into PS and do it again. Somewhere along the line I missed that process again as I didn't save it and my iMac's wifi keeps dropping ever since I upgraded to ML so that is effecting my temperament right now. I also now think this was not as detailed as it should be so was wrong move to post it anyway.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Carl, do you want the above RP deleted?

    Rachel not sure why its grey
    Did you brush in some exposure?
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Steve thinking back now I may have done as I was trying to get some detail and a darker tone on cheetah in LR. Sent you email

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    Hi Carl,

    Sorry, but this isn't really working for me. She looks a little awkward and I'm not too keen on the colours. Perhaps try a B&W conversion....?

    Sometimes it's just about the experience!

    Ed

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    Lifetime Member Andre Pretorius's Avatar
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    We still all love you, Carl & Shangaan
    Regards

    Andre.

    www.gappimages.com

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Default Cheetah/Shangaan

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    Hello Carl,

    I am thinking, next week-end we should all go to Emdoneni and you bring Shangaan with
    Here's another crop I thought of, since Steve already suggested a square crop. WDYT?

    Warmest regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Hi Carl, Gabriela's crop solved the "why cheetah is so bulky" issue. I can see now what Steve meant by the "black choking," around the nose and mouth. Your RP was too bright and wash out for me, but I don't trust my cheapo monitor much. Those eyes are lovely, worth spending time working this image. Loi

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Lovely soft light exposing the eyes and facial detail here Carl...
    You've been given so many options here, I like your last RP and would tone down overall highlights a bit there. Was this cheetah just ruddy? I keep seeing a lot of red in the coat in every repost?
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Thanks everyone for the comments. Morkel it was a bit ruddy but not sure if this is the reason behind this.

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