Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: I Love You Mom

  1. #1
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Thousand Oaks, California, United States
    Posts
    3,023
    Threads
    416
    Thank You Posts

    Default I Love You Mom

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Just a quick post from Nairobi while waiting fro a flight home tonight.

    Image taken at Ndutu, Serengeti which is a strong hold for cheetah. Over the 4 days, we saw 5 females with 17 cubs, 1 pregnant female, 1 male.

    This is a female with 4 cubs. We saw her killed a gazelle the evening before, stayed with her as long as we could well after sunset allowing her and her cubs to feed without the pesky hyenas coming to steal their food. We found her at first light on the day we needed to fly out. She was restless due to the presence of lions in the distance, but the cubs were oblivious to danger. The cubs were stuffed and full of energy. The chased one another around and tried to entice her to play. In this image, a cub jumped up, put her front legs around the Mother's neck, and planted a kiss on her face.

    We chose to stay back a bit because the Mother was restless, didn't want to put more pressure on her.

    1DX II
    500f4 II + 1.4X III
    1/4000
    f5.6
    ISO-1600
    Av +2/3EV
    Bean bag from safari car

    Processed in DPP4, reduced brightness by 1/3EV
    Cropped a sliver on top and right. No more room on left (I clipped the tail on some images, which was too abd)

    More soon.

    Thank you for commenting on my images.

    Loi

  2. #2
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Somewhere in the world
    Posts
    20,551
    Threads
    1,285
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Hi Loi, sounds like some great encounters, so plenty to process & post hopefully.

    I like the body posture of mum & the greeting cub, but just wished the cub on the left wasn't in frame, or further on emerging from underneath mum with the face visible. Not having the 1.4 I would have given you a better option for framing, as you would have been about the right distance away. Same about the LHS space, but I wonder if it needs a slight rotation too, which could then cause issues with image content? I appreciate this was done whilst at the airport, but I might try to get some more tonal depth out of Mum & Cub which will help define more of the body form??

    Good to hear Canon resolved previous issues and you are now back on track, as we ruled out one route, so things did point to the only other cause.

    TFS
    Steve

  3. #3
    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    14,320
    Threads
    929
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Hi Loi - What a sweet image! Light looks a bit bright but well handled. Love the interaction between cub and mom. I agree with your self-critique that a bit more room on the left would be preferable. Also wish more of the cub on the left was visible but then you probably wouldn't have the hug . You could try a vertical crop along the lines of this rp. Btw the image is in RGB rather than sRGB so as you know there may be a shift in color depending on browser used.

    Sounds like you had a great trip. Looking forward to seeing more images.

    TFS,
    Rachel

  4. #4
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Nagpur, India
    Posts
    3,837
    Threads
    245
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Hi Loi -- What a great image to start with. Such a sweet moment and loved the expression on Mum's face. I find this image quite bright so I might reduce that aspect and also my first thought was why the T.C. it must have made life difficult in framing the images . Liked the crop idea by Rachel , makes the content much more appealing . Wish to see more from your trip .

    TFS !

  5. #5
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Thousand Oaks, California, United States
    Posts
    3,023
    Threads
    416
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Just got home now and looked at the image on my Eizo Color Edge 27" monitor. Thank you Rachel for spotting the color profile not sRGB. I used Adobe RGB and forgot to convert to sRGB. Agreed with Steve on the cub on the left. I wish she weren't there too, and now that you mentioned it, I kept looking at her instead of Mom and the other cub. As for the 1.4X, I had been focusing on the cubs playing and without the 1.4X, they were a bit too small in the frame. Too bad about not having more space on the left.

    I reduced the brightness a bit more (-0.5EV total) and added a little contrast to try to get more "tonal" depth as Steve suggested. Honestly, every time i tried to add contrast, the image seems to be worse than before, so I tended to stay away from using Curves.

    as for Rachel's suggestion of an alternate crop, I feel having Mom's full body adds more to the image than cropping. I don't have enough pixels for such a large crop any way.

    So here is the RP. I think it is a sweet image, but it does have its problems.

    Thank you for your comments. They are very helpful.

    Loi

  6. #6
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Somewhere in the world
    Posts
    20,551
    Threads
    1,285
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Honestly, every time i tried to add contrast, the image seems to be worse than before, so I tended to stay away from using Curves.
    Not sure what you mean here Loi, but I stay as you know, away from Contrast where possible and if I do add any it will be after the RAW.

    I don't have enough pixels for such a large crop any way.
    Always best to shoot the way you wish to portray the image.

    Loi, can you check, did you have HLP enabled. I might have a little time if you want to fire the image over via Dropbox.

  7. #7
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Somewhere in the world
    Posts
    20,551
    Threads
    1,285
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Hi Loi, thanks for the file.

    How about something along these lines? WB, colour subjective, but I feel there is more you can get from the file. just looking at the techs, yep FP fine, I might have expanded them, gone to f/8, but why are you so 'wedded' to HTP, I don't think it's helped here, but interested to hear your thoughts. You got the most from the exposure without blowing the whites. BTW did canon also calibrate the camera too?

    Steve

  8. #8
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    14,858
    Threads
    1,235
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    A fine moment - yes without the 1.4x it would have been just right...or as Rachel cropped it you could have shot 2x haha
    I think Steve went in the right direction colour-wise, looks more natural to what I've seen from the East African plains in terms of colour?
    Morkel Erasmus

    WEBSITE


  9. #9
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Thousand Oaks, California, United States
    Posts
    3,023
    Threads
    416
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Steve, Thank you for the RP. From what I can see, mine has a Red cast, yours has a Green cast. The Ndutu area this year is experiencing severe drought, so even in mid Feb, the grass is not green. Not sure why the colors were off, may be because I shot the image off from the light angle as you can see from the shadow. The sun was pretty strong despite the early morning hours. I think more Yellow would be the more true colors of the cheetah.

  10. #10
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Somewhere in the world
    Posts
    20,551
    Threads
    1,285
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    As I said Loi in the RP, WB/overall colour is subjective, I can only balance it (so you start without any colour cast and an even set of colours) then take it in a direction I think might be appropriate. Going more Yellow than Green is just a tweak from here. The main issue is that the image lacks depth of detail in the OP which this now has. I think also 1/3 stop might have been better than a 2/3 stop, but marginal perhaps. Personally, I still feel having HTP on did not do you any favours, but your call.

  11. #11
    Forum Participant
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Thousand Oaks, California, United States
    Posts
    3,023
    Threads
    416
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    As I said Loi in the RP, WB/overall colour is subjective, I can only balance it (so you start without any colour cast and an even set of colours) then take it in a direction I think might be appropriate. Going more Yellow than Green is just a tweak from here. The main issue is that the image lacks depth of detail in the OP which this now has. I think also 1/3 stop might have been better than a 2/3 stop, but marginal perhaps. Personally, I still feel having HTP on did not do you any favours, but your call.
    Sorty Steve forgetting to address your question on HTP. Just blindly set it up base upon the 1DX guide from Artie years ago I think.

    i just looked up some info on it. One article said in HTP mode, the camera underexposed the inage by choosing a lower ISO and lift the shadow. That could explain why I kept pushing for high exposure compensation by 1/3 or even 2/3 EV in many cases.

    i will try to witch it off and relearn. But that means I must watch myself for over exposing an image by the same habit!

    thank you for asking an not-to-expected question on camera setting.

    Loi

  12. #12
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Somewhere in the world
    Posts
    20,551
    Threads
    1,285
    Thank You Posts

    Default

    Loi D+ is much better now than in the MK1, however, and perhaps personal choice, it's something IMHO that you engage when you need to and not have it as an Enable setting. In the right context it works you just have to be sure when to engage it. You can see what happens with your Bob cat last year. The best is to experiment to see with & without, only then can you really make the right call in the future, as it's then an 'Educated' call.

    I'll send you a link which shows you how to Expose correctly.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Web Analytics