I followed these three sub-adult cheetahs together with their mother for almost a whole day in the Kgalagadi - They even stayed put under the protection of a fallen camel thorn tree while I went for almost a 2 hour lunch break... The light was harsh most of the day and I eventually decided to go for this monochrome conversion on this image...
Canon 7D and 500mm F4 L lens - 1/1000s at F9 and ISO 200
A fan of the the cheetah on the right, gives a good balance to the image. For me, it would have worked better if the the two cheetah on the LHS were looking more towards the camera.
I find the conversion a little flat, and could probably help with a wider tonal range.
Very nice conversion… nice warm tone…. only suggestion I would make is to darken slightly the light area above the single cheetah and lighten the dark spot on LHS of image .. they just tend to pull your eye from subject.
I disagree with Russell I love the fact the two cheetah look away … as it leads your eye thru the image…
This is a really nice cheetah scene. The single cheetah is the star of the image, and the supporting cheetahs add well with their heads perfectly mimicking each other and not overlapping. It is good that the sky has no details to interfere visually with the cheetahs. I like Rachel's suggestion of reducing the sharpening on the foreground bushes, to add more emphasis to the cheetahs.
very nice conversion, like the warmth as well in there. I might would turn down a tad the bright rocks in the FG, just me, IMHO! They look a tad harsh, but you might want it that way.
Peter gave you good suggestions with the bright and dark areas, give it a try.
When was this taken? We followed a mother with her three cubs before Sitzas, October 2012. The cubs were having fun chasing a jackal around Swarthaak shrubs while she was aiming for some springbok. I laughed so much, could not shoot!
In the end they ruined her hunt!
If they are the same, glad to see they all made it to sub-adult!