Theme Danger lurks in the long grass

[Glenn Pure]

I was very excited to have my second sighting of leopards, then watch this scene unfold. This female leopard had a 7 month old cub nearby (close to full grown). They were both up a tree when she spotted this steenbok in the long grass. We watched as she crept down the tree trunk, straight past the side of our vehicle and then slunk down in the tall grass right behind us. Luckily I was in the back seat and got a prime view. Fortunately for the steenbok, the grass was too long for the leopard to accurately judge the approach and the steenbok, realising something was 'up', decided to run off before the leopard had a chance.

As for the photo, I had high hopes I'd caught a great moment here with a killer shot. While I still think it has good drama to it, I was much more disappointed when I finally got to see it on my screen. I've done a bit of work to try and salvage it and I'd appreciate any and all comments:
1. I tried for focus on the steenbok but the grass in front threw this off slightly. I had another frame from a few seconds earlier that was good so I've cloned the head from that shot into this shot - something I would never normally contemplate doing though.
2. I've tried to soften the grass a little.
Details are: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 (MkII) at 142mm handheld (thank goodness for zooms). Manual exposure 1/640 sec, f7.1, ISO 1000. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin where minor NR applied. Sharpened after final size reduction (cat and steenbok only).

[keith mitchell]

Hi Glen,have to agree with your self critique re the image qaulity,I'm sure others on here with give you good advice on this, but when it comes to image content this is great,I can almost feel the tension ,with the stealth of the Leopard and the very alert Steenbok makes a super picture.

Keith.

[Mike Hitchen]

A rare moment well captured, especially considering the conditions. There is a real sense of impending doom for the steenbock. My only wish was that the leopard's head was raised a very small amount to get a sense of the whole animal but that is nitpicking.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Glenn these are vey, very special moments to witness, as often things do not always go to plan and these big cats can spend a long time in stalking and then suddenly something spooks the prey and all the time and effort is wasted and the Leopard, Cheetah, Lioness... then has to go hungry. It was good to have both subjects in view and the prey looking towards you. With the tall grass sitting up high in the Land cruiser helped to get a better POV and to be able to see both subjects. You don't mention if this is FF or cropped, but moving the whole frame down so less above and more below I think may help, as having more at the foot gives the feeling of the cat moving forward towards the subject. The tall grass is never easy specially when trying to focus as the camera just locks onto the nearest point, so either if your camera has the facility you can set it so it doesn't jump so much in focusing, it stays more 'locked on' or you manually focus. Hard to try to explain about the settings for this, but if you have 'Cases' in the camera menu this is where you can customise things.

Although I shoot Canon I have not seen or tested the 80D so I cannot say on how high you can push the ISO, but with something like this I think going to f/5.6 and trying to have plenty of SS (1/2500 or 1/3200+) up your sleeve is the was to go, to nail the action when it happens. Having an image sharp, but wth a bit of noise is better than having a soft image with zero noise.

Regarding PP, the only element you need to address is that for all web or projected images you need to assign an sRG colour profile to file for web, your image sadly does not, it's RGB. Again Elements is not something I know, but if it has an option Save for Web as PS does, or Export then this should help you, as you need to change the Colour Profile, but then save it with a new name, you do not want to over write your master file. But ultimately you need to change from RGB to sRGB for web. This link may help you perhaps, albeit old, I'm not sure?

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-el...ng-images.html

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Glenn for sure a great encounter and moment captured !!!!
Very difficult to get the focus right, so i think you did well under the circumstances .
Regarding the color and tones , having the missing SRGB profile in mind ...i think overall a tiny bit too saturated and the blacks are looking a wee bit heavy .
You might address this and make an RP ....if you like.
I do agree with Steve about more space at the foot of the image .

TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Glenn - Always tough to get these types of shots in the field so you did fairly well here. Agree with Steve and Andreas about the color profile, the sat and the room at the bottom.

It would be great to have your thoughts on other wildlife images. We recommend commenting on 3-5 Wildlife images each time you post one of your own. It's the best way to foster a sense of community, to all learn from each other and to get the most out of BPN. Your comments don't have to be technical in nature. Just tell us what you like and/or don't like about the image.

Thanks for participating in this month's theme,
Rachel

[Glenn Pure]

Rachel, thank you for the advice on posting protocol. As a new contributor, I'm still learning this side so hope I haven't committed any sins here. I have been posting to a few other categories where I've felt I had something to contribute but will get on and do some responding here. The problem is that I love virtually everything that is posted!

For all the other people who have replied, a big thank you! I will rework this and repost in the next day or so (I assume that's OK?) to address the issues and respond in more detail to the points you've raised. I have already had 4 or 5 goes at this shot and was in two minds about posting in the first place because I just wasn't that happy with it - but I was stuck for further ideas on how to save it.

[Rachel Hollander]

No worries Glenn. If you do re-work the image, you can post it in this same thread.

[Glenn Pure]

Hello all - thank you again for your time and very helpful comments. Above is repost that addresses all the issues that I could. I still strongly suspect this is an image that 'might have been' but doesn't quite make it even with the changes. I'll cut my losses now and move on. As for the specifics:
1. There was nothing left on the bottom of the frame to bring in so I'm stuck with the framing (on the bottom margin anyway), as shown. BTW, this was a vertical crop from a landscape image - the crop took in about 80% of the vertical dimension. Apologies for omitting this detail in my OP.
2. I have reduced the saturation over most of the image (except for the Steenbok's head - trying to make it 'pop' a bit). When processing the original RAW file, I had pulled in the black and white points to boost the overall contrast as the original was quite flat but I probably over-did this resulting in the inky shadows and the saturated look (saturation setting for the RAW was '0'). I have also lightened shadows on all except the steenbok's head.
3. As for the original post, I've softened the grass with a little blur. I've also cloned out one particularly dark bit of grass.
4. Saving with sRGB colour space: I thought I had done this since the processed file was sRGB - so thanks for alerting me. I think this file is good now but please let me know if there is still a problem. It turns out that for the 'Save for Web' option that I was using, there is a little hidden option to save with embedded profile or none. It seems 'none' is checked by default. There is also a checkbox to 'embed ICC profile' which I had not checked initially but probably should have... but I'm not entirely sure how that differs from the hidden option I just mentioned. Others more expert may be able to comment.

Regarding the comments on the capture settings:
I do have two custom modes, one of which I have set to AI Servo AF for bird flight shots (I'm mainly a bird photographer). I switched to this when I saw the situation unfold thinking that if the cat did pounce, I'd be able to get a focus lock on the action. However, I luckily switched back to centre point single-shot AF as AI servo wasn't going to let me control the focus point while reframing the shots - it kept re-focussing where I didn't want it.
As for using a higher ISO, this would have been a good idea if I'd thought of it at the time - but I didn't! I guess that's what experience brings. Based on my experience with bird flight shots, I think I could have managed with 1/640 sec and got a little motion blur here and there (which I don't mind as it conveys action) but I never got to find out this time.

[Steve Kaluski]

Saving with sRGB colour space: I thought I had done this since the processed file was sRGB - so thanks for alerting me. I think this file is good now but please let me know if there is still a problem.

Yep, file looks good, so just try to remember or save the settings.

It turns out that for the 'Save for Web' option that I was using, there is a little hidden option to save with embedded profile or none. It seems 'none' is checked by default. There is also a checkbox to 'embed ICC profile' which I had not checked initially but probably should have... but I'm not entirely sure how that differs from the hidden option I just mentioned. Others more expert may be able to comment.

Glenn I would post this question in the Workflow Forum as some folk may use Elements and can answer your question, sadly I cannot as I use PS.

I think I could have managed with 1/640 sec and got a little motion blur here and there (which I don't mind as it conveys action) but I never got to find out this time.

If the prey bolted with the Leopard in pursuit, 1/640 would not have captured much at all because of the speed of action. Your right to concentrate and fix and follow the prey, not the stalker, but you need a fast SS to nail/freeze any action as soon as it starts, not to change settings after the event. Thinking ahead of the game and with something like this, I feel it is always best to have everything prepped

[John Mack]

Cool image here like the composition and the story it tells.

[Steve Kaluski]

Glenn just had some stuff through from Adobe and this link may help you, however it is for Elements 15 and I'm not sure what version you have.

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/pho.../features.html