I'm glad to see Steve's portrait of the young leopard. I was working on this close up portrait and wondering about the colors. This is a female leopard named the Ostrich Dam Female at Mala Mala. We found her coming back from a morning hunt apparently unsuccessful. She had a gash about 5 inches in the inner thigh of her left rear leg. So she went into the shade of a tree to rest.
1Dx
500f4 II + 2X III = 1000mm
1/640
F9
ISO-1600
Monopod with Mongoose Sidekick 3.6
First time I used the monopod. It turned out that I have many images not quite sharp as I would normally get with a bean bag. This one seems OK
Heavy cropped to about 33% of FF.
Processed in DPP4, added +0.33EV, added saturation.
I wish I had more DOF to get the nose more sharp. I don't have any more at the bottom.
Looks like you had some amazing leopard sightings - I am so happy for you!
As your title says, this image is all about the eyes...My first thought as I opened the thumbnail was " if this was mine I would have gone for a crop just below the eyes, for more impact" - those eyes are awesome, sharp, and I love the colour!
Not sure how far you were from the subject but I am tempted to say the 2x converter was unnecessary. Had the rest of the face been sharper this tight crop would work better, here the slightly OOF tongue and that blade of grass take away from the beauty of those eyes - just my thoughts, looking forward to see what the others say, IMO you can get more out of this image by eliminating those distracting elements
Hi Loi - I've certainly tried for these kinds of images with the cooperative subjects of the Timbavati and Sabi Sands but they never really fully cooperate, glancing to the side or turning their head slightly. They work best if you can stop down to get sufficient dof and also if you can frame it so the eyes are straight on and the head fills the frame. Judging by the sharpness of the leopard's right eye and the fly above it, I would say your FP was on the right eye. I think it has to be between the two eyes but with enough dof so that both are pin sharp for these to work or they have to be on the same plane. Here the heavy crop has hurt IQ , there seems to be some artifacts in the fur and cropping further as Gabriela suggests will only exacerbate the issues. Keep experimenting.
Hi Loi good to see you are experimenting in the field .
It is about the eyes .....the eyes do look good to me , but the fur has suffered from massive crop .
The crop as presented is not working that great to me , but going in more ...... not possible without having a conflict with the IQ .
Overall i think the contrast is a wee bit high , but this is all personal thinking.
How does the full frame look like , just wondering about no more content at the foot of the image ?
Hi Gabriela, Rachel, and Andreas, I knew the DOF was not enough. Should have tried at f11 or something. I have given Gabriela's question regarding whether the 2X use was necessary and Rachels's comment regarding the DOF.
First, I was outside the limit of mini 10-m of my 500f4. I don't know how close I was to the subject exactly, but I will post a FF image here. I could try a different crop.
Second, I wanted to get the patterns of the eye, so wanted to go for the most glass I had. My mistake was not to bump the ISO to 3200 to get F11, I think that would be a better choice with the 1DX
Coincidently, I got my latest copy of the Smithsonian magazine June 2015. Amazingly enough the cover is an image of a Lion's face by Marc Shoul. The nose of this lion is also out of focus! Now I'm not saying my leopard image is in same league with the cover of the Smithsonian, but I wonder whether even at F11, i could ever got the nose in enough focus.
Getting closer would mean losing DOF. Getting further away would mean more crop. So, it's up to you to decide!
Andreas, the full frame image is attached here. Export straight from LR with no sharpening (other than the default). I actually like this more colorful version, so will rework the original image.
Hi Loi, personally I feel if you go for something like the OP avoiding any really cropping will help, but I do like the colours. A bit more SS would have been good and as you said, upping the ISO isn't an issue. Tough call on the DoF and I'll post something that you may find of interest. I do like the tight crop, but the blade of grass is rather annoying, but nothing you could have done, the curled tongue is a nice bonus.
Hi Loi - I think the biggest obstacle to accomplishing what you wanted with the image is that the leopard did not cooperate and was angled slightly away from you. I do think the ff image is worth processing.
Hi Loi - very late on this but i liked the fact tht you experimented . Have u ever tried to stack TC's ? it would have nearly got you the ff similar to the your OP , but not sure abt the quality . but in the first case is is possible to stack TC's i.e. the 3rd gen ones ?
Also the ff image is actually worth working upon agree with Rachel and Morkel on that.
Hi Loi
Lots of impact with this shot mate. I love it and the huge crop held up pretty well.
As Haseeb said, stack TCs mate. I have no qualms about doing that and get some very very sharp images in the process. You would need an extension tube between the TCs I think with the MkIII TCs. My MkII TCs don't need that.
You probably could have just used the 1.4x for this idea. Lovely result though mate.
Haseeb and Akos, I have not done much with stacked TCs. I'm doubtful that I would get the sharpness I want on a safari vehicle and stacked TCs though. Steve showed that it is possible to get really sharp images by getting close. I'd have preferred that way.