This is the start of the hunt that ended in failure as per my previous post ('danger in the long grass'). Thank you again to everyone for comments on that earlier shot - a pity I couldn't do much more with it. In this frame, the female leopard has just spotted her quarry and creeping down the tree while closely watch on her potential meal. I hadn't realised what was going on though until a few moments later. With thanks in advance for any comments you may have.
Details are: Canon 80D with EF 100-400 (MkII) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/400 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. Crop is very close to full frame - nothing left in the top left unfortunately. The lower right was overcast sky and completely blown so I've greyed it. Not sure I've got that quite right though? Sharpened after final size reduction.
Hi Glenn, not much wrong with this, I think you did very well in terms of both framing and techs. I very much like the fact the Leopard is in the V of the tree, nice alert pose and you can sense the intenseness of the leopard. I would seriously just try to push the ISO on your camera to find it's limitations and so you know how far you can push it to gain more SS. Blowing the BKG was right as the main scene would have been under exposed.
My only thought is, if you get some more 'contrast' back into the backdrop of the tree so you have some nice tonal range for the subject to 'pop' against, all though Curves adjustments, as IMHO adding contrast kills the midtown detail, where you get your sharpness from, but you may prefer the softer look as in the OP? To what degree is personal preference, but hope this illustrates the thinking. Perhaps and not a deal breaker, but coming down from the top in cropping so the rear of the leopard just merges.
Looks like you are getting to grips with the PP too.
Steve, thanks for your detailed critique and reworking of this. It is all very helpful to get me thinking about what works and what doesn't, not to mention getting another perspective. BTW, I keep forgetting to mention location: this was taken in the Okavango Delta in Botswana on a recent (first) trip to Africa. Regarding your specific points:
1. I also liked the position of the leopard here. But I like your crop better. My previous attempt was 'half pregnant', I think. Better to just chop a bit off the top as you've done than trying to recover something that doesn't quite get there.
2. Higher ISO and faster shutter speed: about the highest I can usefully use the camera for most things is about ISO 1600. I can control noise above this with Neat Image (a wonderful bit of software) but it will start to cost a little detail. I also lose dynamic range. In this case, the shot was very sharp with the exception of the cat's head which was a fraction out due to focus being a bit behind her head. I used some USM there to recover it and not really noticeable I think at this size. A bigger image would show up some weakness. So higher ISO would have benefited I think by allowing me a stop down a bit more and gain a bit of DOF. But I also accept that higher SS will result in lower risk of a dud shot due to motion blur. I always find this a hard compromise in the field.
3. Increasing the contrast: to my eye, your repost takes attention away from the cat as the background has more going on with its higher contrast. A solution would be to increase contrast selectively for the cat - that could work and would make her pop but I'm fairly comfortable with the overall look of the OP. Perhaps others have comments on that?
4. As for PP, I'm always open to ways of improving. I have worked hard on this in recent years with good guidance from Ian Wilson, an Australian bird photographer (I mainly do birds). Ian was a member at BPN some time ago and has conveyed a lot of what he has learnt. So I have settled into a fairly comfortable routine for PP. But as I say, always open to new ideas and refinements on that.
Thanks Glenn for the very comprehensive reply, it makes all the difference and from what you say, I feel you will move very swiftly in building on things and your improvements will be in leaps & bounds.
May I ask which camps did you stay at in Bots, as over the years I've now visited 15 so it would be interesting to see if we share any?
1. I also liked the position of the leopard here. But I like your crop better. My previous attempt was 'half pregnant', I think. Better to just chop a bit off the top as you've done than trying to recover something that doesn't quite get there.
Cropping can be very apparent, or occasionally another POV can nudge things along, but also very subjective, but I feel it improves with time, so perhaps choosing a different format can make all the difference and not something you may have thought about first of all i.e. 16x9 or a 10x8... it all depends on the capture. Try to avoid cropping portrait from a landscape and vice versa, shooting in the format you wish to present the subject in is always best and retains IQ, although sometimes it might not be an option.
2. Higher ISO and faster shutter speed: about the highest I can usefully use the camera for most things is about ISO 1600. I can control noise above this with Neat Image (a wonderful bit of software) but it will start to cost a little detail. I also lose dynamic range. In this case, the shot was very sharp with the exception of the cat's head which was a fraction out due to focus being a bit behind her head. I used some USM there to recover it and not really noticeable I think at this size. A bigger image would show up some weakness. So higher ISO would have benefited I think by allowing me a stop down a bit more and gain a bit of DOF. But I also accept that higher SS will result in lower risk of a dud shot due to motion blur. I always find this a hard compromise in the field.
Could be a bit of a handicap when you need faster speeds i.e. 1/3200 for birds in flight if light is of a premium, but if exposed well ISO1600 should have little noise and using DPP to address noise will help. If you haven't done so, then I would suggest you purchase Arash's NR Guide for DPP, but if you are happy with Neat Image then fine. Was it that the Focus point was behind the head, or the camera is rear focusing? Might help if you can expand the Focus points so you have a larger area, but then it might lock onto an area you did not want perhaps, but not sure if you have this facility on the camera?
3. Increasing the contrast: to my eye, your repost takes attention away from the cat as the background has more going on with its higher contrast. A solution would be to increase contrast selectively for the cat - that could work and would make her pop but I'm fairly comfortable with the overall look of the OP. Perhaps others have comments on that?
No problem, just a though.
But as I say, always open to new ideas and refinements on that.
A good philosophy to have, we never stop learning. My take is keep your Workflow simple and as you gain knowledge then refine it with the developments in Software. Keep Third Party stuff to a minimum in the early days as you can often be lost in which way to turn, once you have honed the basics then you can add.
Hi Glenn - A very nice image of the leopard. I like the pose. You can tell the leopard has seen potential prey and is about to move on it. Steve's rp has improved the leopard. I would go somewhere between your op and his rp for the tree and bg. Also be careful that the sky doesn't become gray. Comp wise, I sort of like the bit of tail present at the top of your image. It makes it feel a bit more 3 dimensional for some reason. Looking forward to your next post.
Thank you again Steve, and also to Rachel and Sanjeev. I'll soon be away for a couple of weeks so will make this my last post for a while. Apologies in advance for going to ground so soon...
Thanks for your suggestions Rachel, including avoiding a grey bit of sky in the bottom left. I actually changed it from fully blown white to this pale grey but wasn't sure about that. I was concerned leaving it white would be a distracting element but I probably need to rethink that from what you are saying.
It seems opinions are split of the crop at the top left. I'm swayed towards Steve's version but can see your point, Rachel. As for making crops, I never use a standard ratio. I always look at the image and crop to the extent I think works for that shot - not always getting it right though. In general, I like landscape crops better but it's a personal preference. I usually capture most of my shots in landscape and find the camera more comfortable to use in that format.
As for the 80D's limitations, being a crop sensor 24MP camera, it's never going to have the high ISO noise performance and dynamic range of a full frame. Otherwise, it's very capable and has most of the features of the 7DII (but slighter smaller number of AF points and slower burst speed at 7fps v 10fps) but it has a new generation sensor with slightly better noise performance and DIGIC 7 processor plus most or all of the customisation options of the 7DII. It was a coin-flipping exercise at the time I bought it though. As for how I use it, invariably, I use centre point single shot AF, lock and recompose. That way I can (usually) get the focus point where I want. In this case, the leopard was moving and I hurriedly locked AF but not quite where I should have. The camera is not front or rear focussing - I've done some testing and looked at the micro-AF adjust but found no tweaking needed to that.
Our trip to Africa was truly wonderful and will stay with me for a very long time. I'd love to go back only problem being the world is a big place and where to fit another trip in. For Botswana we took the easy but expensive option of an organised safari with &Beyond. It was excellent. It was a camping tour (but only in name - the setup was very comfortable). However our last 2 nights were in an &Beyond lodge in the Okavango called Xudum that has been rebuilt in the last year or two. This is a spectacularly beautiful and isolated lodge (90 minute drive from airstrip then another half hour on boat). The other spots we stayed were a semi-permanent tent camp in Nxabega in the Okavango and two sites in Chobe (northern section near the Chobe river and Savute). Both the latter were temporary camps in bush campsites that we had to ourselves and the 2 other couples in our group. While in Africa, we also spent time near Kruger in South Africa, Victoria Falls and almost two weeks in Namibia. Some great wildlife shots especially from Etosha in Namibia that I hope to share on this forum in coming months.
I absolutely love this image with the contrast and detail in the bark of the tree helping the incredibly beautiful cat to pop even more than they usually do in images. Cracking image !!!!
Hi Glenn -- A nice Alert pose , very synonymous to a leopard , nothing for me to add as already everything has been said and discussed above . Very nicely done . TFS !
The hunt begins
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