leopardess in late afternoon sun

[Julie Rathbone]

Gorgeous leopardess taken in South Africa - Thornybush Game Reserve on a very memorable safari holiday..nikon D800 80-400mm f 5.6

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Julie, when posting can you add as much info about the shot as well as the Exif : 1/160ss F/13 ISO320 it really does help.

A nice restful pose in what appears to be some cool light, but the Blacks and Shadows make the image look dark because they are clipped, filling in the finer detail, back off helps. It also appears a bit too saturated and rich, I appreciate the 'Golden light' period, but I might revisit the PP side if you have time, as the eyes also look odd, especially with the light direction. I think here you could have shot say f/9, gained more SS as 1/160 is low and therefore retained better IQ. No idea how far you can push the D800, I'll leave that with Morkel, but having more ISO would have been better too, purely for SS again. You don't say if this is FF or cropped but a bit more space below and a fraction less in front perhaps may be a better crop option???

Glad to hear you had a memorable time as seeing animals like this in their own environment is a real treat.

TFS
Steve

[Julie Rathbone]

Hi Julie, when posting can you add as much info about the shot as well as the Exif : 1/160ss F/13 ISO320 it really does help.

A nice restful pose in what appears to be some cool light, but the Blacks and Shadows make the image look dark because they are clipped, filling in the finer detail, back off helps. It also appears a bit too saturated and rich, I appreciate the 'Golden light' period, but I might revisit the PP side if you have time, as the eyes also look odd, especially with the light direction. I think here you could have shot say f/9, gained more SS as 1/160 is low and therefore retained better IQ. No idea how far you can push the D800, I'll leave that with Morkel, but having more ISO would have been better too, purely for SS again. You don't say if this is FF or cropped but a bit more space below and a fraction less in front perhaps may be a better crop option???

Glad to hear you had a memorable time as seeing animals like this in their own environment is a real treat.

TFS
Steve

Gee I feel dumb here, what is IQ, image Quality?



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[Steve Kaluski]

Gee I feel dumb here, what is IQ, image Quality?

Yep.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Julie - A nice first post to the Wildlife Forum. It's always thrilling to see a leopard in the wild. Steve has made excellent points with which I agree. Looking forward to seeing more of your wildlife images. Btw here's a list of the abbreviations/acronyms commonly used on BPN: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-ABBREVIATIONS

TFS,
Rachel

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the sharpness, light and eye clarity. Seeing the clear curve of the far eye is appealing to me. Well done Julie.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Julie agree this is a stunning first post to the wildlife forum , congrats to you by getting the Leopard that close by .
Love the stunning light .
Good suggestions made by Steve , in which i agree .
Keep them coming
TFS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR
Andreas

[Julie Rathbone]

Hi Julie - A nice first post to the Wildlife Forum. It's always thrilling to see a leopard in the wild. Steve has made excellent points with which I agree. Looking forward to seeing more of your wildlife images. Btw here's a list of the abbreviations/acronyms commonly used on BPN: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-ABBREVIATIONS

TFS,
Rachel

Thanks Rachel, this is very helpful


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[Julie Rathbone]

Thanks Rachel, this is very helpful


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Thank you everyone, looks like I may have overdone my PP here....I'm here to learn so will keep at it


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[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Julie, welcome to the wildlife forum. I like the colors and light. Agreed with Steve that the eyes look off. Did you brighten them? They look rather flat to me. I'd expect at this close up you would feel more 3D. I feel the image was also over sharpened and I would suggest to back off a bit. Loi

[Steve Kaluski]

Thank you everyone, looks like I may have overdone my PP here....I'm here to learn so will keep at it

Hi Julie, no idea where you are in your journey in Photography or indeed in Post Production (PP), but as I have said to many, keep your Workflow simple in PP. The more you can get right 'in-camera' the better the image, the less you need to do in front of a screen, allowing more time out in the field.

PP can be daunting at the best of times, so get to grips with the basics Exposure, Layers & Sharpening, probably 70% of Photoshop people will not use and rarely anyone will use the full potential of this powerful tool. If you use a RAW converter i.e. LR or NX then try to do as much as you can here and leave PS to tweaking.

BTW what do you use to process your images, what software do you have, are you a newbie to the software, or have a grasp? Just good to know for future feedback, do we talk in simple terms or more 'advanced'

There is some excellent threads here which will help such as Saving for web, DoF etc
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...onal-Resources

[haseeb badar]

Hi Julie -- Welcome to BPN and the wildlife forum , and what a lovely image to start with . At this moment I can only echo the above comments but i liked the image because of a close encounter. Looking forward to see more images from you in the coming year. Wish you a very happy new year !

TFS !