Look Into My Eyes (C)

[Sandy Brooks]

Khalli from Triple D is fond of photographers bags and I happened to have mine across my shoulder. Took the shot and opted to move the camera bag! This is one of the first photos I have taken. Canon 5d Mark II 200mm 1/640 f5.0 iso 1000 Cropped in a bit. Increased clarity slightly and decreased highlights slightly. Comments welcome. Thank you

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Sandy

This is a nice one. I really like the composition. Magnificent animal and you captured a very strong pose on that rock. Love the eye contact.
The face lacks a bit details and sharpness. And there is some artifacts around the edges of the puma and on the rock. Maybe you missed focus slightly?
In postproduction I would suggest backing of sharpening (over the entire picture) and apply more sharpening if possible selectively on his face.

TFS / Gregor

[Sandy Brooks]

Thank you. I am just learning post processing and am really unsure what to do. Did not notice the artifacts until you mention it. Will try the edits you suggest.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sandy -Welcome to the Wildlife Forum! It's great to see a cougar and she certainly gave you a great pose. To me the image looks a bit cooked e.g. too much pp. Perhaps post the straight out of camera shot just resized and saved for the web and then people can give you suggestions on the pp. Also let us know what pp program you are using. There are a number of post processing tutorials in the Educational Resources Forum.

Finally, don't be shy about giving your thoughts on other people's images. It doesn't have to be technical. Just tell us what you like and don't like about the image. Active, frequent participation is the best and fastest way to learn the most from BPN and become part of the community. We recommend commenting on at least 3-5 other wildlife images each time you post one of your own.

TFS,
Rachel

[Anette Mossbacher]

Welcome Sandy to the forum, wow what a great image of this animal. Haven t seen one for a long time. Love the the expression for sure. When you post a image like Rachel suggest it than we for sure can help you further in your processing and will get you there.
we all went this way, as well me. I am very thankful to this forum what I have learned in here

The artifacts are the first things we learn to notice and little more will come along, with the time you see all.
i just love this image, great pose indeed.

have a great evening

Ciao Anette

[Sandy Brooks]

Thanks for the input. The next image I post will be unprocessed for sure.

[Gregor Bergquist]

Hi Sandy

Why don´t you try to change, lab around a bit, with our suggestion in mind and post a second version here. Maybe say something what you think worked in pp or not, for you. And then the thread most likely will continue and so all of our learning process.

Best regards, Gregor

[Sandy Brooks]

Actually, thought I would post the unprocessed version of this one to get your comments. Then play with the pp based upon your comments and compare it to what I did before. Plan to post the unedited version this evening. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Rachel Hollander]

Sandy - that's what I was suggesting. Post the unedited image (straight out of camera) just resized for BPN and see what suggestions people give you for processing. Alternatively, if you can host the RAW file somewhere that people can download it from then they can have a go at the RAW which will produce better results. Your choice.

Rachel

[Sandy Brooks]

Here is the original noncropped out of the camera image. Can you suggest a site where I could upload the raw file? Thank you for all of your help!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Sandy,

First of all, a warm welcome to BPN Wildlife! I took great pleasure seeing your enthusiasm for photography and wildlife, enjoyed your original post here as well as the non-cropped versionWould love to participate whenever possible with comments and suggestions on your images, I am going on holiday soon and busy with preparations, unable to comment at length right now but I so look forward to your future posts when I return!

Kind regards,

[Sandy Brooks]

Thank you ! Have a great Holiday

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sandy - Sorry, I forgot to come back and do a repost for you. Here is my take done from your sooc image. Obviously it would be better to do it from the RAW file. Probably the biggest problem with the image (other than the person being present) is that the image is underexposed. If you raise the exposure you'll introduce noise. First thing I did was adjust the WB. I found a spot on the rock that I thought was closest to a midtone gray. I then dropped the contrast -10 and opened up the shadows slightly. Since it was underexposed I didn't have to adjust for highlights or whites. I added 10 points of clarity. I brought it into PS and did a levels layer, bringing the right hand slider in until just before the whites clipped. Next I did a quick linear contrast adjustment in curves. In a hue/saturation layer I dropped the reds by -20. I opened the eyes a bit with a screen adjustment layer. Finally, I cropped and sharpened. Another issue with your op IMHO is just that it was too much of a crop and IQ suffered as a result. I put the cougar in a rule of thirds placement but included more of the habitat as well. WDYT?

Rachel