Cheetah portrait

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

We were lucky to see a mommy cheetah successfully take down a gazelle & the two youngsters then coming down to feast. This is one of the youngsters after having a share of the meal.
5D III
700mm
1/1250
f/6.3
ISO 3200 (as light was fading fast wanted to keep that SS up)

[Bretoteanu Dan]

Nice posture and fur detail, that blood on the lower lip reminds you that it is a predator after all, albeit still a youngster. Like the background also. Havent you thought about cropping a bit tigher left, right after the mane ends?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - Nice look at the youngster and the blood on the face adds to the image. I like the open mouth too. There's a bit of a magenta cast to the cheetah but an easy fix. Also opening up the midtones slightly brings out a bit more detail.

TFS,
Rachel

[Alex Becker]

Love the HA angle and the blood. Details and DOF look nice to me. I agree on the color cast that Rachel pointed out. I like the eyes and wonder if you could bring them up just a tiny bit (although I've never seen a cheetah so up to you!). TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well detailed, I too see the magenta cast, the blacks appear too heavy to me. Composition:- maybe a 4:3 or 5:4, there seems to be a lot of empty space on the RHS.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Sanjeev,

Indeed you were so fortunate to have this cheetah posing for you, and what a nice uncluttered BG as well!

Good choice of ISO and some nice SS, I suppose if you had a chance to peek at the histogram you might have considered overexposing a bit. In terms of processing, I would open up those blacks to reveal more detail on the nose, eyes, and gums. Apart from colour cast already mentioned I see no other nits, you might want to look at Dan's suggestion and crop a bit tighter from the LHS. Good DoF, sharpness is there and I like the textures in the fur - overall a lovely capture which I think needs a bit more attention from you in terms of PP work, I would love to see an RP if you have the time.

Thank you so much for sharing dear Sanjeev

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev a very nice Cheetah image, the gapping, blood stained mouth adds to the capture and conveys the moment well. Techs look good and good to see you pushing the ISO. I also like the framing but would prefer the image flipped.

Regarding the image I think you may have slightly under exposed, but without seeing the original Raw I'm assuming. I agree with Gabriela regarding the Blacks and this could be through Contrast, Black slider, Levels etc, but with fading light this probably didn't help the capture. I'm struggling to see any cast here, for me the WB just needs tweaking, likewise quarter tones. Again I'm guessing, but if you have adjusted any colour this has thrown things out a little.

TFS
Steve

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks for the comments. I did reduce the magentas during PP, though it had fixed it. But will re look. also, yes it was very slightly under exposed despite +1/3 stop. I did not touch the WB, so I guess that was the problem. Steve, your RP is very nice. Thanks for that.

[Steve Kaluski]

Your welcome Sanjeev, but get the WB right, that's really all you needed to do.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- This is so nicely done , quite late on this so need for me to mention anything already mentioned above , but definitely do agree with them. So far the best from your recent Africa trip. Keep them coming .

TFS !