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A few spots in golden hour
I have been lurking most of the year, enjoying the wonderful images shared on the forum. I have only spent a few days in the wild this year due to work pressure, but it's time to do post a few images again.
A few days before Christmas last year, I received an early Christmas gift when I encountered this male leopard out on an early morning stalk. I was in the Kruger National park, and left left camp just before 5 am. After encountering wild dogs and spending about half an hour with the pack, I drove on searching for the elusive leopard. Less than two minutes after I left the wild dogs, I encountered this male leopard stalking impala. I just loved the early morning light falling on the leopard, and the relatively clean background which made the profile of the leopard stand out so clearly.
After I took a few wider angle shots with the 6D and 70-200 2.8 Mk2, I grabbed the 7dMk2 with the 400 5.6 when the leopard sat up, as I reckoned I needed my sharpest lens for the close-up shots. I probably had about 30 seconds before the leopard moved on and disappeared behind bushes.

Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed): 1/1000
Av(Aperture Value): 5.6
Metering Mode: Evaluative Metering
Exposure Comp: 0
ISO Speed: 1000
Lens: EF400mm f/5.6L USM
White Balance Mode: Auto
AF Mode: AI Servo AF
I cropped the image a bit from the top and the left. PP done in LR5.7, with minor tweaks to exposure, contrast, saturation, highlights and shadows.
A bit of noise reduction done on the background. Selective sharpening using the adjustment brush. A tiny amount of extra sharpening on the JPEG.
All C&C's welcome, thanks for looking.
Thinus
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Wildlife Moderator
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Hi Steve, thanks for the kind words. I must agree, when I looked at the image after I posted, the image looked a bit flat, and a bit more contrast would have made a difference.
PP work still leaves a lot to be desired, but that will hopefully change later in the year when I upgrade my laptop and get PS CC as well.
I guess I could have gone for a more squarish frame to leave more space to the left. I'll do a re-frame and re-post later.
Thanks for looking!
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Wildlife Moderator
Hi Thinus, I was actually thinking less Contrast & opening up the Shadow slider a fraction, if it was well exposed you could get away with it.
If you upgrade PS then get the package of upgrading your LR too, some nice features added and they work so seamlessly, but Software IMHO is always down to the individual to make the choice. 10x8 landscape may work providing it doesn't cramp the subject?????
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Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator
Hello Thinus!
Funny you mention "lurking" and it makes me smile, I have been doing the same for the past few days, lurking and not commenting much, unsure of my little laptop here... In Pretoria right now, not far from where you are:)
A pleasure to see this lovely leopard you have captured, I hope I get a similar gift in Kruger Park next month - do you remember where you took this?
I like the framing here, more on the LHS would be great but wondering about those branches and whether you might have to do some pruning:) Agree with Steve regarding lifting shadows and reducing contrast, this would reveal some lovely detail in key places like the eye and nose.
So rare a sighting and so special, I will certainly view this again when I get home! Also hoping to see more images from you in Wildlife, glad you are back
Kind regards,
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Hi Thinus a lovely Leopard shot , i am with Steve to 100 % , like him i am watching on a not that ideal screen .
Will have a look later and come up with an RP from my home machine , already have an idea how to deal with it.
Haseebīs approach does not look right to me , sorry Haseeb
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TFS Andreas
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Hi Steve, clearly I misunderstood the contrast suggestion. I will post the re-worked image later.
I will certainly go for the Adobe Cloud monthly subscription option when I purchase a new personal laptop to get both PS CC and LR. Then the hard work will start as I really want to improve my PP work and I'm fully aware of the improvements I need to make in that area. My current laptop is a work laptop, and the specs are just not good enough to have both LR and PS CC on the laptop.
Thanks again for your input.
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I guess my RP not working for me either :) !! Did too much with the sliders, after seeing Rachel's RP , this is what i had in mind but spoiled it. Thanks for your feedback Andreas and Rachel
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Nice to see you posting Thinus! You seem to have better Kruger luck than I have (although my recent luck with Wild Dogs there changed).
Nice framing and moody light. To me it looks like the rump/shoulder is a tad sharper than the head/face?
Please post some more images from this trip!
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Hi Rachel, thanks for the comments, it is really appreciated.
I looked carefully at your crop suggestion, and I think it may work, although the crop will be just about square, which I'm not sure about. It will certainly remove a lot of the twigs at the bottom. I will include more space to the left, but more of the green leaves will also unfortunately be visible in the image. It will be a difficult job to clone out the leaves successfully, so I'll leave it as it is. I'll do my best to increase midtones and lift the shadows.
I would like your input on the re-post, I'm certainly learning from the suggestions made.
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Hi Thinus, the jump to both new additions of LR & PS would not be a big step for you, but there are some nice 'subtle' features they have added which, when found and used does make life a lot easier. You'll never use all of what is on offer, but getting to master the real 'basics' is key and the foundation of all that you will do. Also the third and perhaps often overlooked area, is to keep your monitor calibrated, wandering around the 'stately castle' (from wing to wing, rampart to dungeon) with your laptop where the 'light' is oh so variable is not/never ideal for continuity and images can therefore vary greatly in look. Try and keep to the same environment and workstation if possible.
would like your input on the re-post, I'm certainly learning from the suggestions made.
Please do when you have time repost, however always remember, we ALL will see the image differently, albeit in small degrees. 
Just a side note, if you are shooting RAW, when time allows, treat yourself to the fastest CF you can afford, helps reduce any buffering time.
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Hi Gabriela, I have been too good at lurking this year, but it's time to change all that :)
Welcome in Pretoria, summer certainly came early this year! Late November I will be near your area at Zimanga. I hear it is very dry there at he moment. Let's hope for a bit of rain soon.
All of the above suggestions will be incorporated in the re-post. I will try to extract a bit more detail.
Gabriela, I encountered this leopard on the road between Skukuza and Kruger Gate near the Phabeni road turn off. I'm sure you know the area. This male is well known in the area and is known as the Lake Panic male, as he is often spotted at Lake Panic's western end, south west from the hide, to drink water. He is normally spotted close to midday.
Enjoy Pretoria and a safe trip back home! Thanks for looking!
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Thanks for looking and for your input Haseeb. Unfortunately your version didn't look natural to me. No worries, as you can see I also have my struggles with PP.
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Hi Morkel, thanks for looking and the feedback.
I needed some luck with leopards as I have not had that many good sightings for many years :)
The focus point was right on the black spot behind the eye. It was on an area of less contrast, so the image may have been a tad sharper if I had the focus point on an area with more contrast, like the eye or or just in front of the eye. It was shot out of the hand through the passenger window.
I'll definitely post a few more images in the coming weeks.
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Originally Posted by
Steve Kaluski
Just a side note, if you are shooting RAW, when time allows, treat yourself to the fastest CF you can afford, helps reduce any buffering time.
Hi Steve, the generous advice will be taken to heart. I always use a 32GB 120 MB/sec CF card as I often shoot birds in flight.
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Hi Andreas, thanks for effort and feedback above. You certainly lifted the shadows quite a bit, and a bit more than what I did in my re-edit which I'm yet to post. Your conversion does look natural. I guess the problem I have is that when becomes altering an image too much. I guess what I mean is, it was early morning and the shadows were a bit darker as I remember seeing with my eyes. It is definitely not criticism, I just want to hear your view on it. How much do you try to present the image as you saw it?
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I always use a 32GB 120 MB/sec CF card as I often shoot birds in flight.
Look for the 160mb/sec Thinus, using a fast card allows the buffer to empty quickly and shoot at high frame rate longer. Cards nowadays are so affordable, can't believe my first 1GB cost me Ģ200 (2,000 Rand?) amazing how things have come along in such a short space of time. I think the 7D has a very 'modest' size buffer and you can perhaps fill that within seconds on a very high burst, so worth thinking about. Also make sure you have two cards, (albeit one CF & SD, SDXC, SDHC) in there and set to write immediately one is full, saves messing around at critical moments!!!
One thing to remember, going for a high frame rate may capture the moment, however you may also find you have less keepers too and so a a slower rate may work in your favour, just another element to think about when shooting, there is no 'silver' bullet sadly.
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Quite a nice image, Thinus! I quite like Andreas' re-post but think perhaps just a little less lifting of shadows along his shoulder. Also, cropping the bottom does improve the comp, at least to my eyes.
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A very nice image Thinus, You have such good suggestions and RPs coming your way. A good learning exercise for us. I like Andreas's RP the best.
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Thanks to all for looking and for the very helpful advice and suggestions.
I did a re-edit, and incorporated many of the valuable suggestions received. In the end I didn't lift the shadows as much as Andreas did, but I have to add, if it wasn't my image and if I wasn't there, I would also have been inclined to lift the shadows more. In the end I tried to keep as close a representation of the scene I viewed that morning. Usually I'm not a great fan of square crops, but I tried it on this version. It probably also fits in bit more with the theme.