The Stretch

[Katie Rupp]

Early morning on the Mara and this lioness was sleeping on a mound; as we watched she got up and had a wonderful full stretch to start the day. Choosing a frame to post was difficult but I like the full-out stretch here; looks like it feels soooo good. Thanks, Wild Eye with Morkel and Marlon! C&C greatly appreciated.

5DIII, 500f4, Av, f8, 1/1600, +1/3, ISO500

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Katie - a nice cat behavioral shot. I like the timing and the full stretch. Techs and dof look good. Your image doesn't have an embedded color profile so there may be a color shift when viewed depending on the browser used. The reds look a little strong to me and still do when I bring it into PS and assign Adobe RGB. So if it were mine I would drop the reds about 20-25 points in a hue/saturation layer. It still maintains that bit of red but not as strong. Then convert the image to sRGB to post. From your description of her rising off the mound and stretching I'm guessing it was luck of the draw that she went just behind the mound to stretch and so there wasn't an opportunity to reposition so that the mound wasn't partially blocking the view. Such is nature photography . Looking forward to seeing more of your Mara images.

TFS,
Rachel

P.S. Nice to see you posting after a long absence from Wildlife.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hey Katie! So great to see you posting after our trip.
I agree with Rachel about the colour shifting to red - first see what an embedded profile would do about it before adjusting colour balance. I would tone down overall bright tones with a luminosity mask too.
I don't mind the mound, typical Mara environment (plus my angle got even more mound in the shot LOL).

P.S. Nice to see you posting after a long absence from Wildlife.

Yup - and judging by how fast Madame Rupp was filling those memory cards with absolute belters of images, we're in for a treat.

[Katie Rupp]

Thank you Rachel; I incorporated your suggestions in the attached reworked image; better? And I realized I entered incorrect shooting info which should be as follows:

5DIII; 500f4 with 1.4x, f5.6; 1/800, Av and ISO 800

[Rachel Hollander]

Katie - you still don't have an embedded profile. Here's a thread Steve did ages ago that used to be a sticky but got moved to Educational Resources:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ght=saving+web

The important thing is whether you think the image looks better (but I do think so).

Rachel

[Katie Rupp]

Thanks again, Rachel. I absolutely do like it better; somehow I didn't see the red but I did as soon as you pointed it out. Thanks for the link as well...

[Dumay de Boulle]

Reposts colours are better. Nice pose and good comp. Nicely done Katie!

[Steve Canuel]

Nicely composed image, repost looks a touch better. This one makes me want to get out of my chair and take a good stretch myself.