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Thread: Sylvester #2 (C)

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    Default Sylvester #2 (C)

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    Another shot of the orphaned cheetah that 'resides' at the lodge where we stayed at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe back in May. This was taken early one morning before Sylvester went out for he free-roaming session (where he is let off his lead by his handlers). Unfortunately, there was a railing just above his head that I had to avoid in this shot, hence the hard crop at the top where I would have liked a bit more space. The crop is about two thirds of the frame area.

    Thanks for looking and any comments you may have.

    Technical: Canon 80D with Lens EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM at 135mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/100, f9, ISO 800. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, Sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default luminance NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements/Neat Image. NR to background only. Lighting adjustments globally (lighten shadows) and selectively to animal (lighten shadows, midtone contrast) and background (brightness). Sharpened subject only (sharpness function: remove Gaussian blur, radius = 0.4 pixels, 50%) after final size reduction.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Glenn - Definitely a marmite type image. I like the concept and don't mind the tight comp. Love the warm light of the bg and the gaze of the eye. Unfortunately, the cheetah itself looks a little overcooked to me. I want more depth to the shadows and a bit less saturation on the cheetah. Also with a close-up like this, the blown hls in the rim light, like those along the bridge of the nose, tend to bother me more than in wider shot. Of course, all of this comes down to personal preferences and artistic interpretation.

    TFS,
    Rachel

    P.S. Glenn - I forgot to mention that you don't have a color profile embedded in the image.
    Last edited by Rachel Hollander; 01-12-2018 at 07:52 AM. Reason: Forgot to mention no color profile embedded

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rachel Hollander View Post

    P.S. Glenn - I forgot to mention that you don't have a color profile embedded in the image.
    Thanks Rachel. As for the profile, I thought I had done this but must have skipped a step somewhere. Either way, all browsers will default to render in sRGB which is what I used here. So should be no issues.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    I like it, I find the crop just a little tight. I appreciate you wanted to capture the mood and lighting but I wonder if it was just a little less yellow (??)

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    HI Glenn -- the tight crop works for me but agree with the above comments. looks a bit over done and very yellow for my liking. The coat of the Cheetah looks quite flat feels like HDR kind of texture. Nice attempt though .

    TFS !

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    Many thanks for your critiques. I did tone down the colour to make it more neutral. The light was really very golden. And have brought a bit more detail and form out in the cheetah. Happy to accept I over-did it. I'm still learning. But it looked quite flat and boring otherwise. Maybe somewhere in between the unaltered RAW and what I've presented? No way of avoiding the blown fringing detail in this situation. Sorry if it detracts. These types of shots are really great matters of interpretation, I think.

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Glenn , always good to try and see later in post what can be done , great thing of the RAW format .

    I am fine with the crop , even if being a bit tight .Some nice detail extracted ...and the colors are ok in the BG and rim light . They do look natural to me, but the colors in the Cheetah ...well not my taste , to be honest. Understand your point of different views and taste , and i greatly accept your thoughts.
    What i do not understand is .... the form you are seeing in the Cheetah ? To me the Cheetah is quite flat from the tonal POV , the colors looking somehow ... " faux " and i do agree with Haseeb that it does have an HDR look . I remember that you posted a similar frame of that Cheetah where i thought the same , if i remember correctly.
    Do not want to sound too harsh , just telling my honest thoughts. I would rather prefer a classy rim light with very dark Cheetah with ever so little detail visible.

    But you are the author , and so it is up to you how to see things .

    TFS Andreas

  8. Thanks Glenn Pure thanked for this post
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    Many thanks again. Andreas, I would much rather have frank comments on my images and do not consider your comments harsh at all. I value honesty as I won't learn much otherwise. Based on the comments I've reworked this to deal with tone on the cheetah and colour. I've also loosened the crop a little and redone this at a larger size. And a little work on the eye but subtle. Hope it's an improvement. I think it looks better anyway!

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    I'm liking your RP here Glenn with the improved tones, I find it's very difficult with backlit images to contain (totally) blowing out rim highlights in hair/fur.

    So applauding your intent and afforts here.

    TFS


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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Glenn, I too much prefer the RP, however I may have thought with this side of the face it would have been far more 'in shadow' and therefore the whites of the whiskers would be less prominent? Perhaps going darker in the face would help more of the rim light, but this is where you become the 'artist' in creating the image? Personally I would just let the lights blow, as I doubt you could ever control them.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Love the backlighting on this one well done.

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    Many thanks for the additional comments and critique. But I've just realised the background is a little noisy on the repost as I think I forgot my background NR step. I won't repost but offer apologies for missing this!

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Hi Glenn, I too much prefer the RP, however I may have thought with this side of the face it would have been far more 'in shadow' and therefore the whites of the whiskers would be less prominent? Perhaps going darker in the face would help more of the rim light, but this is where you become the 'artist' in creating the image? Personally I would just let the lights blow, as I doubt you could ever control them.

    TFS
    Steve
    Hi Steve, I find these lighting situations quite interesting. Depending on exposure used and background -as well as reflected light - the lighting on the shadow side can be more than might be expected. There was reflected light here and the background is also not fully lit (partly shadowed). So the rim light has blown quite severely but the shadowed face has considerable detail. I could reprocess to almost make a silhouette but I wouldn't save the rim light from blowing as you rightly point out. Indeed, without exposing the shot as a silhouette in the first place, I doubt very much the rim light would not blow. This all demonstrates your other point that these types of shots are open to a wide degree of interpretation when captured and processed.

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Hello Glenn,

    RP my favourite here too. Enjoyed reading the comments and discussions above, a lot. Still trying to make up my mind how I should deal with lighting conditions/situations for backlit images. Late afternoon sun, soft golden light works best I think. Keep those coming, I am really enjoying your experiments

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gabriela Plesea View Post
    Hello Glenn,

    RP my favourite here too. Enjoyed reading the comments and discussions above, a lot. Still trying to make up my mind how I should deal with lighting conditions/situations for backlit images. Late afternoon sun, soft golden light works best I think. Keep those coming, I am really enjoying your experiments

    Kind regards,
    Many thanks Gabriela. In answer to your question about dealing with these types of lighting situations, I don't think there is an answer! It does come down to personal taste more than anything I feel. So please try a few things when you are out next and I'll look forward to seeing the results.

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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Really nice lighting on this one Glenn, I love shots like this with the light coming through the fur. A little tight on top, but no big deal for me.

    Mike

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