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Thread: The Queen

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    Default The Queen

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    Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my little princess bobcat image previously. So this is an image of the Queen, the little princess mother, taken early this Summer.

    She was a cool customer. I saw her hunting in the field unsuccessfully. After 1/2 hr or so, she gave up and came to rest in the shade. I approached her cautiously, taking some safe shots. then I got on my fours and crawled in a little more while watching her. I had the 1.4X on, but there wasn't much light in the shade at the end of an afternoon, so I took the 1.4X off and crawled on my hands and belly for the last few yards.

    1DX II
    500f4 II
    1/250
    f4
    ISO-3200
    HH while lying flat on the ground. Next time I need to wear long sleeves with elbow patches. It hurt holding the 500!

    almost full frame except taking a sliver off the top and right fr comp.

    Processed in DPP, warmed up with color temp slider.

    Hope you like it.

    Loi

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    Hi Loi, What a great shot, nice and sharp, the eyes just pop out at you, love the pose, the licking tongue just adds that extra life to the shot, I would post some of our resident bobcat that walks around our home every few days, but the BG is always of under the patio or beside the house not as pleasing to the eye, he walks 6-10 feet from me without a care in the world , been so close I can smell him, closest shot i've got of him is like 8 feet away. I even put him in my avatar, really enjoy the chance I have to see one close up and your shots make me think how lucky we are to get a chance to see them close up, Thank you for sharing, great job!!
    Last edited by Brian Desjardins; 10-09-2016 at 08:00 PM.

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    Hi Brian, would love to see your bobcat too. With regarding the BG, mine was very messy too. Lying flat on the ground and shot at 500mm F4 helped throwing the BG into a creamy BG. Moving a little but left or right might help.

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    Hi Loi -- Wow , you had some great sighting of the Bob Cat ! Loved the tongue sticking out pose and a great low POV . I see that OOF FG is affecting the lower portion of the frame and it is quite tight there . Also i think the DOF could have been more something around f8 but then that iso had to bee raised upto atleast 6400 or may be 8000 . I also would drop the contrast slightly . As for the crop i would go tighter from both LHS as well as the RHS .

    Nonetheless i would love to have this in my collection . TFS !

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Loi, good PoV and I like the slightly off set of the body with space to the RHS.

    Personally if this is FF then I think you needed to back off a bit more, this would allow still room for the 'final' crop for presentation, but more importantly, you would have more space at the foot to include the paw and some OOF vegetation, which I would have been better and added a bit more intrigue to the image. At 1/250 HH I'm not sure how 'sharp' the RAW is, but agree with Haseeb that more DoF and going direct to ISO 6400 with the MKII is a no brainer, if not higher. I've shot at ISO 12,500, friends at 16k with superb results i.e. 1/2500 : f/7.1 : ISO16000, I really feel you should push things, but your call. Also was HTP still enabled, if so, turn it off in the Menu, IMHO it's hurting the image bit being in the shade, remember what it does.

    Overall I find the 'look & feel' of the image too 'processed', the Blacks and Contrast (if applied) heavy, starting to border on crunchy in parts, the eyes worked on and the tongue too pink, just my take/impression. Backing off would I'm sure would generate a more appealing image, as things would be a lot softer, plus if this was in the shade I feel things would be a bit more muted??? I might be tempted to darken the BKG to add a bit of interest, basically to blah with the light? Remember the leopards you posted, the PP was excellent on those.

    If you think situations like this will keep occurring then I might suggest a bit of lightweight kit you may wish to think about, but using a ball head would be preferable rather than a gimbal for weight.

    Loi, you are having some wonderful encounters, I just feel you need to take your time in both execution and the PP side to do both YOU and the Cat justice, you have it in you clearly illustrated in previous posting, keep them coming!!!

    TFS
    Steve

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Loi - Great fieldcraft to get so close to a bobcat. It's equally great that she seems relaxed with you. I also felt that this was back to the pp of the first image of the kitten that you posted with a bit too much contrast and heavier blacks. I do think you can overcome the issues with the tight comp by cropping it a bit more. Here's an alternate crop that I think works. I did no other adjustments in PS because I think you need to go back to the RAW and reprocess it more along the lines of your second kitten image.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Hi Loi your Queen is a very nice lady .... a pleasure to look at .
    You had some great opportunities with the cats , and you did very well i think in getting the shot and your patience paid off .
    Cool relaxed pose and the tongue is a very nice bonus .... stunning eyes !!!!!
    Overall i think the image does look too processed , in terms of color and tone , well my thought .
    Agree with Steve very much in terms of pushing the kit ..... leave the comfort zone of low Iso settings and get more SS or f stop .

    I really like this one .... nice work

    TFS Andreas

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    Hi folks, I agreed in principle that I should back off some, but I'm happy with the crop as is. I have another frame in which I didn't cut off the front paws. I don't think it adds that much to the image. I like the OP frame because of the eyes and the tongue. Here is one in which I didn't cut off the front paws and it is full frame. I jut hadn't had good luck with ISO-6400 in low light in which I can't expose to the right, so prefer to stay at 3200. Some of my kitten images were first taken at ISo-5000, so I will look at them and report back. Thank you Loi

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    and regarding whether the RAW file is sharp or not at 1/250, here is a 100% crop, in DPP sharpness set to 3, no sharpening done in PS. It looks pretty sharp to me. More DOF would have helped, but there is nothing wrong with the SS IMO.

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    Hi Loi, Thank you for asking to see our Bob it would be my pleasure to post one here once the thread and discussions have died down if you don't mind. Like I said in your other post I have had to shoot HH @ 1/80th of a sec @ iso 400 to get the shot if I had taken the time to change setting Bob would just have not been there anymore, Maybe not the right way to do it but from my images it can be done as long as the subject is not moving. Sure not every shot will be sharp but a few will be and you got the shot in the end.
    Back to the cat I like both in the end one a slight bit more DOF but my eyes go right to the cats eyes and tongue so in the end both work for me. Great job still !



    Brian

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