Thank you for all your comments and suggestions on my previous post.
Here is my contribution to this months theme. A tiger cub trying to imitate its mother by scratch marking a tree in bandhavgarh national park. It was totally unexpected behaviour as they all were sitting and all of a sudden a cub jumped up and performed the act. The techs could have been better and as a result i ruined a shot where the cub is looking into the camera due to the low ss plus a lot of movement in the vehicle .
DPP 4.5 , CS6, curves, selective colour , WB , selective vignetting, cropped from the bottom and slightly from the rhs , sharpening . ( It is a very early morning shot ) .
cloned out a stick in the lhs and an oof grass blade on tigers body.
Really nice perspective on this one Haseeb, it gives the impression of someone hidden away the long grass peeping at the action. The placement of the tiger between the frames works well, and there is no loss of impact with the lack of eye contact.
Techs wise its suffered due to the low shutter speed, and it sounds like other factors were against you such as the movement in the vehicle. It took me a while but I eventually got used to pushing my old 5d3 to a higher ISO, but it did take me a while to get my head round it.
Hi Haseeb - Nice behavioral image for the theme. Looks like a pretty big cub. As far as comp I might consider adding a bit of the space you cropped from below for the virtual legs and taking some off the top. I realize the fg might not be ideal with the oof grasses. I also might open up the midtones slightly. Agree with your self-assessment of needing more ss.
Set aside issues already mentioned I still like your image a lot. Perhaps this is due to its dreamy quality, or because I see your passion for the species coming through. I never lose interest in your tigers my friend, please keep them coming
Haseeb,the probs aside,it's the colour of your cub set against this pale pastel of grasses and dark strength almost of tree trunks, I take rachels point I also would like a bit more at the base if it's there,but still find it a wonderful image to stare at.
Thank you Hasseb, keep them coming I love this one cub looks so big I thought an adult at first, it's so strong a stunning moment caught!!
Thank you everyone , your comments and suggestions are much appreciated !
There is some more space at the bottom of the frame , will try that crop providing with more space at the bottom and at the same time coming down from the top.
They were pretty huge at that time of their lives, but totally dependent on the mother, who was keeping them well fed.
movement in vehicle, try next time to get your own jeep!
I like the scratching and pose of the tiger, just would like to have the tiger more "over to look into direction camera"! Or sideview of the eye....
Love the paws, shows quite a lot. I agree with Rachel with space on the bottom. I would as well add there a tad more, if you have it, of course.
Juggling with additional folk in a vehicle is at times challenging, so appreciate the situation and even with a faster SS, I doubt it would have made much difference because of the 'excitement' within the 'gipsy'.
I'm OK with the depth at the foot, cropping to a 10x8 and reducing some off the top & a fraction off the LHS could work, as there is enough space for the 'visible' legs as presented, just darken that area. If you had moved left you might have had a better HA, but the paws would have been less visible, including the 'actual 'behavioural aspect. Not sure if you have added any NR, although the RH tree trunk looks a bit too smooth, so if you have added any, personal choice, I might not have??? The soft, more muted colour palette in the BKG provides some 'pop/standout' to the subject.
BTW I was looking at 'clamps' for that roll bar, but you would need a sturdy one to take a ball/gimbal head, plus it might not be so convenient if you had to move left to right, more restrictive.
@ Steve : Gimbal head sometime restricts the movement but it is very helpful. But if someone just moves heavily inside the vehicle then i feel nothing could help in that situation.