Just like Steve said, we should try to post different animals.
We stopped for breakfast align the Sand River in the Mala Mala. I got out of the car trying to take picture of an elephant bull in the distant. When I turned around, I saw a head and a pair of eyes looking at me from above just above the tall grass. I looked towards our guide for instructions - flee, get back in the car or what, but he said it is Ok if I don't make sudden movements and be cool. So I knelt down waiting for the hyena to come and come he did. He was just eyeing me for a good minute or two and then walked down to the river for a drink with his 2 pals.
1DX
100-400 II @ 170mm
1/1000
f8
ISO-1600
HH
Cropped slightly top and left. No room at bottom or right.
Overcast sky, which helped since the sun would be behind the hyena.
Hi Loi -- lovely portrait here ! i have tried to work on your image with a tighter crop and filled some light also reduced the orange and yellows by -10 and -5 respectively, WDYT ?
Hi Loi - What a thrilling experience that I am sure you will long remember. PP looks much better again. I am fine with the colors of the op. I do agree with Jon about the sharpening. You could also open the darkest tones slightly and bring out more detail in the darks. I do wish you had more room below but my guess is you wish that too. It's easy to say in hindsight rather than in the heat of the moment feeling vulnerable to a hyena, but shifting the whole comp down to have more room below and eliminate the bits of bright sky would have been preferable, at least to me. Still a very nice image though.
Hi All, I went back to my file and realized that I had inadvertently moved the white slider in and that caused the crunchiness. I do have other frames with more bottom, but the hyena turned its head and looked more straight down at me. I like this innocent sideway glance in this frame.
Here is a RP with a little bit of warming filter applied, boosted the Levels to 1.09 for the Mid Tone, NR reduction on BG, and sharpening USM at 50/0.5/0 only on the head. Thank you. Loi
Superb shot Loi, I do like the last edit best... taking out the sky as much as possible works well., either in post, or on location. If you have room, (my suggestion) - I would move the head more left, since the animal is looking to
our right., so top left third would look nice... killer shot!
I do prefer your RP. The angle is working with you shooting up at him, but it include that bits of sky.
NR on BG does prevent the eye from wondering.
I to would like a bit more on the bottom, but I love the pose.
He does not know what to make of this guy in front him, on his knees...
Love the POV, well done in keeping your cool and taking advantage of the situation...I think your RP addresses the issues mentioned above and brings more detail in the darker parts, you could perhaps add some canvas on the bottom of the frame if you like but not an issue to me. Lovely image and the unusual angle makes this very special
The story alone is thrilling enough, but the curiosity of the Hyena, and that you kept calm has produced a magnificent capture. Nicely addressed tweaks in final repost and I agree with a bit of added canvas at base would be nice. Beautiful as posted.