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Thread: Female Leopard jumping

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    Default Female Leopard jumping

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    Canon 7D MKII
    Sigma 120-300 f2.8 @ 120mm
    AV f4
    TV 1/2500
    ISO 400

    I was watching the young female Leopard in the Khwai concession on the edge of the Moremi in Botswana. She began chasing a Tree Squirrel and ran after it up a dead tree. This my favourite of the sequence. But got a few nice images. I have never had to drop saturation in an image before but I had to hear. The light was so golden and the leopard was bright orange. So I dropped the overall temp and saturation. I tried to recover some whites on the chest and belly but no chance. They are so gold from the light nothing could be done....Or maybe my PP skills are lacking.

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    You caught this leopard in some sweet light. The tree is nice and i like the pose.

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    Hi Dumay, sweet lighting and what a moment. Do you have any more images where squirrel is closer to the leopard?

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    Thanks for the comments...
    Jay unfortunately I have no images of the Squirrel included. I assume it went to hide in one of the crevices of the dead tree by that time.

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    Love this exciting magical image. As said the light looks.....as good as it gets. Such a pity you dident get the entire squirrel in the frame

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    That is some shot Dumay - well caught, I would have been over the moon with a shot like this!!
    It is easy enough to neutralise the colour cast using the dropper tool in ACR or LR or indeed DPP, trouble is you can loose almost all the yellow glow. You could selectively reduce the saturation of the sky if so inclined. That said the image is very clean and beautifully detailed - congratulations.

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    Oh crap...It's the first time I have seen the Squirrel....LOL. Don't I feel pretty silly.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Hey I didn't until Basil mentioned it!!

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    Whoa Dumay, this is a good action shot with the leopard in air and the squirrel at the top edge upside down! Nice captured!!

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    BPN Member William Dickson's Avatar
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    Love this, lovely light....Fantastic pose on the leopard, the tree looks good to. Beautiful image.

    Will

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    Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator Gabriela Plesea's Avatar
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    Dear Dumay,

    Cannot believe you did not see the squirrel, LOL. The leopard's eyes lead directly to the little one Super timing here and you managed to capture the subject almost in mid-air. Pose from the leopard is stunning. Good thinking on techs too!

    I fully understand your dilemma re. lighting conditions and consequences (subject bright orange), this happened to me a couple of times in Botswana when I had the opportunity to shoot in such gorgeous light. I do think the whites look very good on the chest and belly, no problem there. Just wondering whether the frame overall isn't a tad underexposed/dark?

    Unfortunately the tree has an "untidy" appearance but such is nature, nothing you could do about it. So (apart from the "half a squirrel" at the top ) that is the only issue I have with this stunning capture, although I am well aware it is not the photographer's fault. Do your ethics permit cloning/removal of that branch? I took the liberty to borrow this image and removed it ( a quick and rather untidy job - sorry) just to see if it makes a difference. Also lifted exposure a bit-what do you think?

    Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week, and please post some more from this sighting if you have!

    Kind regards,
    Gabriela Plesea

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    This is an excellent frame, bud! Well timed, composed. Agree on slightly overdoing saturation - Gabriela's repost fixed that nicely.
    I feel the exposure is slightly under - think about when photographing birds-in-flight against blue sky: you need to overexpose to compensate for the amount of blue sky which the camera will underexpose for. Not much here, maybe +2/3 would look great, you can do it in post of course.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Thanks for the comments everyone.

    Gabriela, I like what you have done. The tree I suppose is a little distracting. You have cleaned it up nicely. The tones you achieved are pretty good as well.
    I suppose I never considered cloning the tree or lightening the image.

    Morkel, I actually took the saturation down on the RAW file....not up. That was a first for me.

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    Dumay, this is a fantastic frame, loved the action and you have done exceedingly well to get this frame. Gabriela's RP looks very nice in terms of colours, though , I liked the colours in your OP as well.

    Khwai turned out to be a great place for me as well when it came to Leopard sightings .

    Very nicely done. TFS !

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Dumay, nice capture and I like the warm golden light, but the blue is too OTT for me in the OP unless you shot with a CPL filter. Being side on you were OK with f/4 but think you would have runout of DoF if you shot at another angle.

    It is easy enough to neutralise the colour cast using the dropper tool in ACR or LR or indeed DPP, trouble is you can loose almost all the yellow glow.
    Jon, you either let Adobe do things for you, or... you take control and be the creator, but the first step has to be to change the Camera colour within the Raw process and NOT let Adobe colour manage as you know.

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