Potential prey in sights!

[Glenn Pure]

I think this is the last of my leopard shots worth posting. I have considered comments about earlier posts when working this one up. This female who was in the company of her 7 month old cub was lazing in a tree - very typical of leopards. She's just spotted something of interest. Crop is just over half of the frame area. I've reduced highlights on the background to tone down the bright sky a touch (not sure it has helped much) and lifted the shadows and midtone contrast on the leopard. Thanks in advance for any comments you may have on this one.

IUCN status: vulnerable.

Technical: Canon 80D with Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/400, f7.1, ISO 1000. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, Sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin where very modest NR applied globally along with some sharpening. Sharpened (sharpness, radius = 0.5 pixels, 50%) after final size reduction.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Glenn -- What a lovely looking subject , that coat looks so beautiful ! I envy you for your Leopard sightings. Colours look good to me and so the details , this is quite nicely processed. I am not sure on the framing thing though, looks kind of odd with that clipped lower half. I feel the settings were difficult considering the sky in the BG and those intersecting branches but you have managed well to get this capture . Lets see what others have to say .

TFS !

[Stuart Philpott]

Hi Glenn I feel similar to Haseeb,as a portrait I love her head position,but I think it would be interesting to see all of her could i see wider please? Glenn for me the image is right I know nothing of the details of colour in Africa,but she looks right lovely detail !!

Glenn there is a nice flow almost rythm to this her and the branches I really like this one,Her Gaze is wonderful so intense. An added facet is the textures of the bark It feels like she's about to move the way she pops. How she sits against the bright bkg is well handled

Glenn the bark it looks to have a purple tinge is this right for colour , I'm unfamiliar as I say but interested,it's a gorgeous foil for her this tree

Cracking that must have been a special day mate a joy to stare at ..... but maybe a hankering for wider??

take care

stu

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Glenn - A relaxed but regal pose from the proud mom. Overall, it looks a little light to me and I think you can bring out some more detail in the face with some minor tonal adjustments. I think the large crop has affected IQ as I see some posterization in the area to the left of the leopard. I agree with Haseeb about the crop/comp. How about posting the ff image for suggestions on crop?

TFS,
Rachel

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks Haseeb, Stu and Rachel. I've appended two uncropped frames below as I had a wider shot from zooming back as well. However, you will see on the wider shot the facial expression is not as good, although interesting all the same. I chose the tighter crop to try and get past some of the distracting background and tried to make this more of a 'wide portrait', if you know what I mean. As for IQ, it actually looks fairly good to me but I have had comments in the past about IQ and big crops from a number of people in situations like this. If you could provide a bit more detail on what you are seeing, I'd appreciate that as it will help me to look out for this.

The posterisation isn't visible on my monitor in the crop although I could see some further to the left in the uncropped frame. It is the result of pulling back the sky and the mininimal tonal differences in that area have simply been amplified, creating the posterisation. I'm not sure if there's any easy fix for that other than leaving the sky alone.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Glenn - I'm seeing some posterization/variations in the whites to the left of the leopard. I also think the chest and paw have more detail/sharpness than the face. I tried to come up with a better crop and decide to try an 8x10 and to make the cut foot look more deliberate. WDYT? I like the wider view too with the curled tail.

Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Glenn, a lovely subject with nice details. Agree the crop is a bit awkward. I prefer the wider shot with the tail in. Or a tighter head shot would have been great.

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks for your comments and view on the crop/composition Sanjeev. Note your preference... I've provided a bit more comment below.

Hi Glenn - I'm seeing some posterization/variations in the whites to the left of the leopard. I also think the chest and paw have more detail/sharpness than the face. I tried to come up with a better crop and decide to try an 8x10 and to make the cut foot look more deliberate. WDYT? I like the wider view too with the curled tail.

Rachel, I appreciate the extra info and comments you've provided. That is very helpful. I went back and looked at the RAW for IQ issues. There isn't much difference between the face and the chest and paws, however the fur looks more contrasty and perhaps coarser in those parts where it appears sharper so this might be partly an artefact of downsizing and re-sharpening? As for the crop, I'm not sure about the relatively central placement of the head, so maybe it would work better with more chopped off the left. But the crop will become even tighter then. I note you and Sanjeev don't mind the full body view frame. I was less keen on it because of the facial expression - although not a big deal for me - and it was getting a lot busier with the additional limbs of the tree visible. But nice to know you think it isn't too bad.

I'll be away for much of the coming week so will give you all a short break from my posts and critiques!

[Mike Poole]

I do like the pose and the stare on the cat here Glenn, typical Leopard pose and well captured. For me I'd have preferred you to have been able to have gone in closer - probably a converter if you'd had one to had would have been very useful here. The wider shot you posted is nice enough but for me it does lack a little impact so I'd say tighter would be better on this occasion.

Regarding the posterisation, I've had it in the past from trying to reduce the highlights in a blown shy - is this a possibility here? Just guessing.

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Glenn, although not back yet, but when I first saw the posting on the laptop it looked good, but having read the feedback I'll hold fire until I'm back at the weekend. a difficult location to shoot in and nothing you could have one about the BKG, but posting the FF version has helped. As previous, avoid hefty crops, you just kill the IQ and going tighter in as suggested, will only amplify this, you need to think about this when shooting and this will only help in PP. Not sure if this helps, but fixed lens (like primes) will give you better results, you get the lovely bokeh backdrops because of the compression and better IQ compared to zooms.

Based on the OP I would just crop about half an inch off the top so you have a harder edge.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Glenn,

Please forgive me for coming in so late. You have quite a stunner here, and I will touch on a few things while we wait for Steve's feedback when he gets home.

In terms of composition, after looking at all versions above I settled for the OP. This, because I found the presence of the top branches in the other frames a little overwhelming. Also, getting closer translates into more impact and emphasises the beautiful facial features of the subject. I might take just a tiny sliver off the top?

This is a well exposed frame and colours look good to me, my only wish is that the whites in the fur of the leopard were a tad brighter (mainly on the chin, chest and abdomen).

Nice detail, sharpness is there in good measure. Good IQ, to me BG is not bothersome at all.

Love the poised look and concentration from the leopard. It must have been such an awesome sighting - thank you so much for sharing with us! And I hope you change your mind and post more leopard images, if you have

Kind regards,

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you Gabriela, Steve and Mike. No need to apologise at all, Gabriela as it's always lovely to hear from you. I know you have a busy life and am happy to receive any comment when you are able to get to it. I'm being pulled in multiple directions on composition with this shot and appreciate your opinion. The variety of views are certainly helpful in getting me to think more about this shot and will be useful when I look at it again but think I need to 'forget' it for a while before looking again. I take your point on the whites in the fur, Gabriela. That's an easy one to change. As for the expression on her face, I think this is the moment she spotted the Steenbok in the tall grass and then crept down the tree to stalk it (see my first post to this forum).

For Mike, I did comment in an earlier post along the same lines as you about the cause of the posterisation in the sky. So thanks for some confirmation that is likely the cause.

Steve, happy to receive any further comments you may have when you get a chance.