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    Sifting through around 4000+ images of Tigers taken on my recent tour, somehow this shot caught my eye. I dream of these types of opportunities, and finally, this one
    came true. I am very sure there are folks who will not like this shot, it likely will never be too popular, so the idea is to enjoy your own work, and
    not worry too much on what others think.

    somehow, I wish this tiger was more difficult to see!, though manual focus was difficult enough!

    The last ten minutes of the last safari was incredible - 3 tiger cubs - siblings in battle! I can still here the roars! No blood, no damage, but they are getting to the point where
    it is time for them to grow apart. Who knows where they will end up, we can only hope for their safety from poachers.

    There is nothing more exciting then photographing truly wild tigers in their own habitat., and I mean nothing!!

    A little less iso would have been nice, but 1/4000 was handy as this was hand held, standing up in a small jeep, with 3 other people inside this vehicle.
    I did clone out one small (shiny) blade of grass - distracting.
    slight crop to 16/9

    D800 - 200-400 vr1
    1/4000s f/4.0 at 400.0mm iso800

    Name:  RJB_3597 Tiger in the Grass 1200 web bpn .jpg
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Size:  332.4 KB

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Raymond - Welcome back. I had to look for a couple of seconds to find the tiger. I like this kind of image but do wish the tiger was lit a little better but realize that would sort of defeat the purpose. Because it appears that you are not opposed to cloning having already done so then I would suggest removing the shiny blade smack in the middle and the 2 in the lrc.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Welcome back, Raymond!

    I get the feeling you posted this to wet our appetite...I want to see all 3999 images in your folders I do not have one tiger image, really do not wish to see or photograph them in captivity, so for now I dream on and savour whatever BPN Wildlife has to offer...thank you for sharing!

    Raymond, to get back to your image (and stop dreaming), my thoughts are as follows, likes and dislikes as well as questions:

    I do like the elusiveness of the tiger here and the "stalking" pose, very much.

    I would like to understand your decisions in terms of ISO and F-stop. 1/4000s not necessary IMO, a result of your choices at the time and I realise it was not an easy situation, given the amount of grass and considering the lighting conditions. I would like to know more about your thinking/planning at the time you shot this, I guess the other members might find this a good exercise as well. My take is, you were trying to get as close as possible to the subject, therefore the full use of zoom ( 400mm). F4 blurred the FG for you (maybe a bit too much?). Do you perhaps think - in retrospect - that a higher aperture would have resulted in an image where the face of the tiger was surrounded not by OOF vegetation, but by some nice sharp blades of grass, would this be less distracting or not? I guess I am beginning to understand what you were trying to achieve and very interested to hear your thoughts. I might have tried a few shots at the same aperture, but I like to experiment and I do so especially when not sure of the result, here I would have started with F5 and then gone to F6.3, maybe F7.1 as well, maybe more, given the techs above you could afford this exercise. This is not a critique as such and I am not questioning your skills in the field, seems you've been doing this for longer than I have. I have a similar image of a leopard cub and I am wondering what I could have done to achieve better results, never posted it because I was not entirely happy with it.

    In terms of PP work I feel you could make the leopard "pop" a bit more... yet not sure you wanted to... if your desire was to portray him as dark and lurking in the shadows I will understand.

    Thank you Raymond for sharing this image with us, it certainly made me think about a lot of "things" and I would love to hear what the other members have to say, e.g. what they would do in a situation like this, how they would cope with shadows, wind, tall vegetation, as well as suggestions in terms of processing. Looking forward to more from this trip,

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gabriela Plesea View Post
    Welcome back, Raymond!

    I get the feeling you posted this to wet our appetite...I want to see all 3999 images in your folders I do not have one tiger image, really do not wish to see or photograph them in captivity, so for now I dream on and savour whatever BPN Wildlife has to offer...thank you for sharing!

    Raymond, to get back to your image (and stop dreaming), my thoughts are as follows, likes and dislikes as well as questions:

    I do like the elusiveness of the tiger here and the "stalking" pose, very much.

    I would like to understand your decisions in terms of ISO and F-stop. 1/4000s not necessary IMO, a result of your choices at the time and I realise it was not an easy situation, given the amount of grass and considering the lighting conditions. I would like to know more about your thinking/planning at the time you shot this, I guess the other members might find this a good exercise as well. My take is, you were trying to get as close as possible to the subject, therefore the full use of zoom ( 400mm). F4 blurred the FG for you (maybe a bit too much?). Do you perhaps think - in retrospect - that a higher aperture would have resulted in an image where the face of the tiger was surrounded not by OOF vegetation, but by some nice sharp blades of grass, would this be less distracting or not? I guess I am beginning to understand what you were trying to achieve and very interested to hear your thoughts. I might have tried a few shots at the same aperture, but I like to experiment and I do so especially when not sure of the result, here I would have started with F5 and then gone to F6.3, maybe F7.1 as well, maybe more, given the techs above you could afford this exercise. This is not a critique as such and I am not questioning your skills in the field, seems you've been doing this for longer than I have. I have a similar image of a leopard cub and I am wondering what I could have done to achieve better results, never posted it because I was not entirely happy with it.

    In terms of PP work I feel you could make the leopard "pop" a bit more... yet not sure you wanted to... if your desire was to portray him as dark and lurking in the shadows I will understand.

    Thank you Raymond for sharing this image with us, it certainly made me think about a lot of "things" and I would love to hear what the other members have to say, e.g. what they would do in a situation like this, how they would cope with shadows, wind, tall vegetation, as well as suggestions in terms of processing. Looking forward to more from this trip,

    Kind regards,
    Hi Gabriela - Thanks for your time to respond!

    This was a bright morning, this tiger was moving around, mostly in the clear., With quickly changing light, I shoot auto aperture, and set my iso to an respectable setting, depending on the light, and possible action anticipated.
    I like f4 for the animals at a distance to minimize dof, and create separation.
    I could have stopped down to f5.6, - 7.1, but more in focus grasses would be more distracting, as there is now way at 400 mm that I could get them all sharp.
    Interesting how the background behind the cat seems to have better sharpness, leading me to believe that my focus on the cat was not very accurate.
    I did need to do some local sharpening on her face.

    Technically - not very good, but he scene was cool, and a rare sight for us, as we usually have a clear shot at these tigers.
    Also, I have had almost 0 practice at this sort of scene, and I hope to do better next time!

    As for the rest of my images, a few edits are on my smugmug page if you want to have a look.

    Out of 4,000 I might edit 20., at best.

    Your comment "seems you've been doing this for longer than I have." has no bearing on this issue, or any other. How long a person has been shooting is not relevant to the quality of his or her images., in my opinion.

    The number of experiences and the ability / desire to learn is more relevant.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Raymond, well I guess I'm one of those people you mentioned in your intro, sorry the whole image doesn't really work for me. There is no real clarity of the subject for the viewer to be drawn into and be in awe of this magnificent animal. The blacks/contrast look rather dominating and no 'real light & shaded to provide depth to the image and overall I would expect a bit more life in the colour, just looks flat. Having the subject slightly off set helps, and I think I can see why you had so much FG, but having the privilege of photographing these guys myself, I feel I would want to make more, or at least define the subject more within frame.

    TFS
    Steve

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Raymond ,unterstand what you want to achieve with this image ,and i like the idea .
    Overall i think the image does have some PP issues from my POV , but this is a personal thing.
    Overall just too dark for my taste , and lacking interest cause the tiger does look just lost for me.

    TFS Andreas

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    Hi Raymond -- I really like your work and admire your dedication in the field. Infact i can relate with u how special it is to see the tigers in the wild ! I am 50-50 on this , It requires great courage to experiment on a tiger image cause they are so elusive . the blade of grass in front of its eye is taking the juice out of this image and also the BG is very busy. TFS !

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    Thanks for your comments everyone., personally, I like to experiment with a more abstract view on wildlife photography., for sure its not
    everyone's cup of tea, but the "a-typical" standard shots tend to get a little boring, - talking about my own work.! This image has a lot
    of faults, but the exciting thing for me is that it looks natural.

    Take good care.

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