Cheetah Portrait

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Another one from my Mara trip last year. small crop for composition.
1DX II
500mm II
1/800
f/7.1
ISO 1600

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sanjeev ... solid head portrait .
Overall color and Tones are looking ok to me , I might have treated them differently for my taste but leave that to you . The annoying flies are a nice addition and adding reality and interest ... IMHO.
You have controlled the blacks and whites quite good for the most part .... here and there are some blown HL ( that you have recovered ) that are looking odd .
Sharpening is looking slightly too strong in the face .... for my taste , looks perfect in the shoulder region ..... ???!!

BG is too smooth .... normally no need for NR at Iso 1600 with that kit .

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow that is a close up and a half! I like the colours, my first impression was that the fur looked rather coarse, so as Andreas said probably a little over-sharpened.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks Guys. Andreas I gave 2 rounds of sharpening after resizing 30, 0.3 and 0 values USM. DPP sharpening was set to zero. I had reduced NR in DPP by lowering the luminance NR to 2 from default 9.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Sanjeev ... thanks for the info , just for explaining my thoughts ... even at 300% magnification there is no grain visible in the BG gave me the impression you used NR .

Regarding the sharpening ... does not matter how much or less you used , I still think the fine fur in the face does look at too much sharpened . Really like the structure on the shoulder fur . Told you in the past .. reduce the sharpening in the white fringe , by splitting the sharpened layer into darken and lighten blend mode . Then reduce the lighten layer to 50 % opacity . What is causing the " oversharpeing effect " is the light fringe .

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

OK thanks for the explanation Andreas.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, will leave colour, noise etc, with you and Andreas. Jon, Cheetah fur is quite coarse, almost like wire wool.

perhaps if you had moved a bit more to the right, the magenta blob may have been hidden by the head, a bit distracting. Like the framing and inclusion of the flies.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Sanjeev .... if you like fire me the raw just for the sport

[John Mack]

Whoa look at those flies. Nice framing and i like the background.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I will send the RAW today.

[haseeb badar]

Loved the head shot here Doc.

I agree with Steve reg the Cheetah fur being coarse, and hence sharpening should be treated carefully , to me which appears a bit too much. That blob behind the ear is a real distraction and I feel it should go.

But I think you have done quite well in most departments and produced a fine image.

TFS !

[Andreas Liedmann]

I will send the RAW today.

Hurry up Sanjeev .... day is almost over .... LOL .