A Grimace

[Andre Pretorius]

Image captured this morning with Carl. It was overcast and drizzling when we got up at 4PM this morning.
Decided to go there anyway, despite the weather...I am so fed up of shooting with high ISO..
After coffee at six am with Carl at his place, we decided to go out anyway, just to observe.

We spent the whole morning shadowing two cheetah brothers on the hunt.
Followed them for hours while they were looking for prey and marking their territory.
When we could not follow them as they entered difficult terrain, we stopped to have lunch ourselves.
While enjoying a crash of White Rhinos drinking at the dam, we could still hear alarm calls from monkeys and impala, it might have been our two brothers...

Techs:
Nikon D3S with 500f4
1/1000 @ f5,6
ISO 1000
+1/3 EV

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - great grimace with nice detail. Sharpening looks good. The body seems a little thin/light to me but that could be due to the overcast and rainy conditions. I hope you have more from yesterday to share.

TFS,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Hi Andre ! Lovely Details here but appears to me a bit dull in colors , saturation can be increased i think.

[Mike Poole]

Beautiful shot Andreas, love the pose he's given you. Great reward for just getting out there an putting the observation time in.

p.s. ISO 1000 high? Come over to Britain, if there's one thing we can teach you it's cranking up the ISO dial!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, with hindsight, popping on a converter 'may' I think, have elevated the image to outstanding IMHO, as that face would really be in the viewers 'face' and perhaps have had even more impact with that snarl and threatening posture. I'm using the laptop so... but the blacks look a little lacking in 'depth', I think you know what I mean, but as I said, it could be the laptop. An impressive moment and perhaps a heart beat raiser too?

TFS
Steve

[peter delaney]

Hi Andre

just a tweak in Curves to get your black point...and the colours will pop...
lovely image..
peter

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Andre,

great moment for sure. I as well would give this one more punch, suggestions you got above. Very nice indeed.

have a great day

Caio Anette

[BenBotha]

Nice teeth, expression! I agree with the comments about the colour.

Ben

[Gianluca Molina]

Excellent!
Personally increase a little contrast

[Bill Dewey]

Oh, to have such opportunities, I hope someday to visit this part of the world.

As to the image, the question, in my opinion, that must be asked is what is the intent? If it is show the effect of the actual weather, overcast and drizzle, that is exactly what I see in this image. If the intent is to "punch" the image, then by all means do so, I see no issues at all with doing either. Heck, you could do both, give them different titles if you want.

This is a difficulty that I often have when trying to comment on images, trying to really get into the intent of the person who took the photograph.

I also must agree with Mike Poole. Come join us here in the Pacific Northwest, Washington State. I think this part of the US has made a serious attempt to remain true to our English roots, at least as far as weather goes

[Andre Pretorius]

THANK YOU everyone for commenting and suggestions...
I worked of the Tiff and did 3 different RP's..
In this one used an action for Channel Blending...
Which one do you prefer or think is the better?

[Andre Pretorius]

In this version I applied some Auto Levels, TK selections and different blending modes for curves...

[Andre Pretorius]

Fearing of being boring, only one more..
In this version listened to what Peter said- just moved black point in Histogram and moved mid-tone point down a bit down on the curve
to get more contrast.
Tried Steve's suggestion to get it more "in your face" with a 5x7 crop. Hope the IQ can handle it.
All three were processed as I stated in the intro, no extra work done such as D&B etc, same selective sharpening for web applied.
My learning curve is flattening, any suggestions welcomed
Which one do you prefer, and why?

[Gianluca Molina]

My idea for this shot:

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - For me it's your rp in pane 13. The blacks still look light to me in the other posts and overall the other two still feel a little grey. I would like to see it without the change in crop though for a true comparison.

Cheers,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, I too prefer RP in pane 13, but at the end of the day, do you think/feel the changes have improved the overall image and is it still within the realms of how you want the image to be perceived and conveys your own thoughts in it's final look & feel? I do wonder if the colour needs a little boost, but as I say, viewing on the laptop and not knowing the conditions, it's hard to a bit more 'constructive' sadly, although I may pop something over to you for some thoughts.

Cheers
Steve

[Don Lacy]

Hi Andre, Love the pose and composition I worked off you original post and adjusted both the black and whites point with a curve adjustment then added a touch of overall contrast with a S curve. I then added a touch of mid tone contrast using USM and finished off the image by lightening the eyes and darkening the overall mage except the Cheetahs face. For me the image now matches the intensity of the Cheetahs snarl others my feel Its to much in the end it is your image. Just properly adjusting the black and white points to better spread the tonal values is all it really needed the rest is more of an ideal of where you could take the image.

[Ritesh Nangare]

Lovely Image , love the moment here .......

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you all for the input and comments!
Don, liked your RP most- the question is now even more pertinent!
Do we process as we saw it(it was flat light/heavily overcast), or do it for your audience??
My lesson learn't?
If you post- you have to do it for audience!
Thank you for comments and views!

[Don Lacy]

Thank you all for the input and comments!
Don, liked your RP most- the question is now even more pertinent!
Do we process as we saw it(it was flat light/heavily overcast), or do it for your audience??
My lesson learn't?
If you post- you have to do it for audience!
Thank you for comments and views!

It depends on what type of photographer you want to be, if you want to be a purely documentary photographer then you will strive to match the scene as closely as possible, if on the other hand you want to be a fine art photographer then follow your vision. One question when you where looking thru the view finder where you thinking about the flat overcast light or was your heart beating fast with you taking deep breaths to calm down because you knew this was special this encounter. If it was the later then I see no reason why your image cannot reflect what you were feeling at the time of capture and still be true to scene and the subject.

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Don

Thought a lot about your comment.. Have been in the bush too long, or not enough emotion, or, or.. I remembered cursing the flat light and trying to compose
when capturing the image, my heart was not racing..Only a kill or an attack can do that for me- you then usually have the wrong lens/settings etc to content with
Guess I am a documentary photographer aspiring to capture emotion...