Canon 1DX Canon 500mm f4 L IS II
ACR + PSCC
ISO 2000 1/800 sec f5.6
Taken from car window in Kruger Park (looks a bit flat but pretty close to the truth I think)
Cheetah at kill
Canon 1DX Canon 500mm f4 L IS II
ACR + PSCC
ISO 2000 1/800 sec f5.6
Taken from car window in Kruger Park (looks a bit flat but pretty close to the truth I think)
Hi Jon! A good image portraying life in the bush for these animals. Good detail, colours and sharpness. Am glad the cheetah is in the open with good look at the face and eye contact. The tongue and full belly add to the image. TFS.
Wow Jon, cheetah with zebra kill, I would love one of those in my folders
Very well seen and captured, super timing, I like the pose, blood traces on the face and neck, tongue protruding, and belly index of course!
Framing works very nicely, good DoF, SS a bit on the low side. Not sure the image overall looks flat as such. My personal feeling is, the cheetah seems a tad lifeless - needs to be a bit brighter (curve adjustment) and you could up the saturation just a bit, see if it works?
So glad you had such wonderful sightings in Kruger, and I hope to see the rest of the images soon! Really enjoyed this and a bit jealous
Wishing you a pleasant evening,
Gabriela Plesea
Glad you liked it Gabriela, iIdid saturate the cheetah - camera was set to Neutral, I will have a look at curves but I was trying to avoid being criticized for having no detail in the dark fur
Content is good Jon, well chosen frame with the tongue to. Nice job on not clipping anything on the kill. I'll leave it to others for the colour & techs for a change
Jon can you expand on what you mean and why, also the choice of saturation juxtapose to key colours, be good to hear a different POV, thanks.iIdid saturate the cheetah - camera was set to Neutral
TFS
Steve
I perfectly understand what you mean, Jon. And I admit that for me cheetah images are most challenging in terms of processing.
Here I did a curve adjustment avoiding clipping the blacks. Made the whites brighter and tried to add some colour and tonality, I sometimes like to use the on-image adjustment tool so I can work on certain areas.
Gabriela Plesea
Hi Jon - I like this a lot. Good comp and placement in the frame. The eye contact and look to camera is clearly saying "don't even think of disturbing me." Not too much gore either. It looks like it was overcast. I prefer the colors of the op, the rp has a bit too much orange for me.
TFS,
Rachel
Regard processing, I captured the image in Camera Neutral setting, in the past I had usually used Camera Standard. In ACR I would have used Adobe Standard camera setting and Standard camera setting in DPP.
I have been convinced over ditching that and setting the camera to Camera neutral and then double checking that ACR defaults to Camera raw Defaults and Camera Neutral. Typically i approached an image by being convinced it was half decent at capture and then adjusted accordingly. It worked for the last 20 years or so! The point is however that this approach makes one biased rather than open to what the image could be, subconsciously you think the image is "nearly right".
When defaulting to Neutrality the image looks flat and it has to be built - I am working on this approach and also at the same time I am always checking colour temperature. In this particular image when I set the colours to RGB 50,50,50 I found the image looked rather yellow - in the greens and cheetah also. So I opted for white Balance "As shot". In ACR I adjusted exposure slightly, reduced contrast slightly, I lifted shadows very slightly and added saturation and just a tad of Vibrance then decided against that. I brushed the cheetah with Clarity set to 10. In PS I added a soft light layer and darkened the foreground slightly, I sponged the cheetah at 6%. I used TK Blacks 5 and lifted just a bit and used TK sharpening set to 1000px high. Voila!
Last edited by Jonathan Ashton; 03-20-2018 at 04:18 PM.
Same here, Jon: neutral in camera and then neutral again in LR. Obviously image ends up looking flat as a pancake, like they say. And you are right, it has to be built. I admit I too struggle with the cheetahs.
Sometimes I spend an hour trying to find the perfect 50-50-50 on some frames. But I never use the clarity slider. I think going up to 10 might be too much?
If the cheetah appears too yellow or orange in my RP then you can just do a luminosity curve. I did not add saturation nor vibrance, used only curves to add a bit more colour and tone. But really all you need is to brighten up the cheetah a little, by any means. It appears a bit dull. Otherwise a fine image and really worth spending more time on it. I am happy to try if you send me the RAW, I think you got my email address? In exchange, I will send you one of my cheetahs to process
Gabriela Plesea
Here is another RP, WDYT?
Gabriela Plesea
Hi Jon and Gabriela - I prefer the rp in frame 10. Btw sometimes I use Neutral and sometimes I use Faithful in ACR depending on which I think looks like a better starting point.
Rachel
I have had another look and come up with this version I applied a tone curve adjustment in raw.
Morning Jon:)
I think this version is better. I really like the swishy tail
Have a lovely day,
Gabriela Plesea
Thanks Gabriela, I think it's better, there's a bit more life in it as it were.
Hi Jon, hard to tell on the laptop, but the FG looks a bit off, I might just tweak the temp and bring a bit more tonal depth in? I'll call you.
Steve
Hi Jonathan -- I liked the content and the tongue sticking out , i also liked the image where the tail is raised up from the grass. image in pane 12 has better punch. I wonder did anyone notice any magenta/ purple cast in the image ? or is it just me ! also there is some noise in the BKG , easy fix though . Best output for me is your RP in pane 12 . A nice image . TFS !
Jon, is it with posting what we discussed and now with Haseeb's similar views, if you have time and Barney is OK????I wonder did anyone notice any magenta/ purple cast in the image ?
Ok Steve, here is yet another version, I could not get ideal CB/CT with single dropper so I used white dropper on blacks whites and mid tones, I think now not perfect but colours pretty close to what they should be. Hopefully the magenta/purple cast is now gone. I applied a little NR too - for Haseeb!
Thanks for asking, yes Barney is ok but very tender, he has his paw bandaged and I have to put a little wellington on it when I take him for a walk. To my surprise he has been good as gold and not picked the bandage, we got a great big collar to put round his head but never needed to use it. Back to vet again Saturday.....looks like new camera on hold for a while!
Jon, how close is it to my initial thought in terms of the two numbers??? On the LT the greens look punched and the FG going more Green to.
Should take a snap of that paw & wellington post it in 'Fun'
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