Had a lucky trip and got to see 5 leopards in a week, usually I see 1 or 2. Shot with a 200-500 and a D810 I have some of this one with a kill, ill post those another time.
Hi Bryan - Welcome to BPN and the Wildlife Forum! Very nice first post. I am not on my calibrated monitor right now so will leave it to others to comment on colors and tones (though certainly some areas look hot). Nice straight on pov which is not always easy when they are in the tree. I like the open mouth and sharpness looks good. The leaves over the face are a little distracting, especially because they appear a bit bright so draw the eye.
In future posts, please include focal length, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and exposure compensation (if known), whether handheld or using support, and also any crop or significant post processing applied. It helps with the critique process and in making suggestions for improvements.
Looking forward to your comments on other wildlife images and seeing more of your images.
Thanks Rachel, agreed it would have been perfect if she had just moved to the right a bit to avoid the leaf more.
the details are:
Hand held through a roof opening, parked in a steam, up against a steep bank
1/160 f5.6 iso 400 500mm, centre average metering, focusing is manually assigned single spot out of 51, back button focus
adjustments in Lightroom, this lens is great value for money but the raw files at 500 fully open are a little soft for my liking so sharpening is applied in PS CC
Hi Bryan welcome to the WL forum
Indeed a nice opener that you posted , always special these Leopards .
Yes we ask for a complete list of the gear and techs .... to understand under which conditions this shot might have been taken .
Regarding the image .. well i like the look to the viewer and the foliage is not ideal but does not bother me that much .
Colors are subjective , but for me the image is a bit too saturated and carries too much yellow .I agree with Rachel that some HL are looking hot if not completely blown in parts . Last but not least the Leopard needs some space ....... i think .... i feel he needs to breathe .Hope you get it what i am talking about .
hi,
thanks for the feedback, correct a little more space would be good! and for sure some fur on the chin, paw and leaf are blow out, i think at the sacrifice of retaining shadow detail unless i did some local adjustments I could live with those, ive become less concerned about blown out highlights in parts of images now, in the 80's and 90's no one would publish a shot with flare or blow out...they would tell you to go back to school, now high key, flare and a few blow outs are almost common, arguably more so in travel editorial than wildlife though.
Hi Bryan -- Welcome to BPN and a lovely opening shot !
I am in complete agreement with what Rachel and Andreas has to say about the image , so I hope to see more of you on this forum and also your valuable inputs on other posts .