Leaping Leopard

[Katie Rupp]

We found this leopard on our first afternoon in the Mara which was thrilling in itself and add to that the excitement of watching her climb up a mound and leap across the river. I'm not sure I did this justice so I will appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thanks for looking.

Canon 5DMarkIII; 500f4, 1/2000, f5, ISO800, Av+1/3; moderate crop, cloned out one small grass

Best,
Katie

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Fabulous leaping pose caught mid air, nicely composed. You could open up the mid tones a bit. Otherwise a superb capture.

[Jonathan Ashton]

That is a gem of a shot, lovely details and action.

[Morkel Erasmus]

You nailed it Katie! Dare I say - I missed this shot...not because of settings or anything, I was "chimping" like a rookie...
Great timing and framing. You can't see it here, but I'm pretty sure it was a boy leopard
I agree on opening the midtones slightly and I would also add a hint more vibrance/saturation as the colours look a bit flat. Is this embedded as sRGB?

[Katie Rupp]

You nailed it Katie! Dare I say - I missed this shot...not because of settings or anything, I was "chimping" like a rookie...
Great timing and framing. You can't see it here, but I'm pretty sure it was a boy leopard
I agree on opening the midtones slightly and I would also add a hint more vibrance/saturation as the colours look a bit flat. Is this embedded as sRGB?

Thanks, Morkel. Funny, I was wondering about the gender so looked at all of my frames and couldn't see any obvious identifying "appendages" and then concluded it must be a female. I converted the image to sRGB and also made sure that was checked when I saved it for the web. For some reason that info hasn't been in the exif of my images? My first process (attached) is more saturated/vibrant and I backed off because it seemed like maybe it was too much.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Katie - Great timing and comp. Neither image has an embedded color profile. Good suggestions above for taking it up a notch and perhaps somewhere in between the two posts as far as saturation. I would also drop the brightness of the bg a couple of points to give the leopard a bit more separation from the bg.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Katie, great capture and the pose in id air is great. I'd like to ask if you did NR on the BG or selective sharpening on the leopard. The image has a "paste on" look just a bit to me. Loi

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Katie, great capture and the pose in id air is great. I'd like to ask if you did NR on the BG or selective sharpening on the leopard. The image has a "paste on" look just a bit to me. Loi

Loi, I often apply NR to the BG and selective sharpening to the subject as I did here, perhaps a bit too much?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Katie, a little late to the party, however...

I like the leaping pose and judging by the BKG probably about the best position to give standout to the subject. At ISO800 you should not really need to use any NR and obviously in doing so you will lose detail, which you should really try to retain. The OP looks flat, but addressing the issues as you say, has now pushed it the other way. Personally if you have the time, looking more at the blacks & contrast rather than the Midtones will, IMHO offer a better result and the blacks may not look so solid and offer some more detail. With that kit set up & SS you well equipped to nail the action.

TFS
Steve