Kruger Leopard

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Friends,

As promised I am sharing one of those lovely sightings we had in Kruger Park last month. We found this beautiful male sleeping on the side of the road... waited for him to get up and walk, and were rewarded with some roaring!

Due to the lack of electricity I am doing my editing on the laptop, which isn't ideal...counting on you to give me some feedback and let me know how the image can be improved. Techs as follows:

Nikon D5
Nikon 500 mmm F4
+2/3 EV
ISO 2000
F7.1
1/2000s

Processed in LR and PSCC. Pretty basic PP work as usual. A bit of NR on the BG, a simple curve adjustment, some vibrance, and sharpening of course. Let me know what you think, I truly appreciate any feedback be it technical or otherwise. RP's welcome.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, what an image to kick off with, what a brut/bruiser he is, love the mean stance and fixed gaze.

I like the way the road curves and the soft grasses as the backdrop. Perhaps not a fan of the central placement, maybe a 4x6 coming in/down from the top RHC, but would like to have had more below than above, but... Might run a grad up to his feet and up the Exp under a third of a stop, but viewing on the MBP so???

Techs look good, nicely processed.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Good evening Steve,

And thank you so much for viewing and kind comments! I have so many images of this leopard, shot with both D5/500mm and Z9/300mm. This was probably the most exciting sighting we've had, with this male roaring loud and walking towards the vehicle. He was so confident and not concerned with the vehicles whatsoever.

The composition here isn't quite what I wanted but thought I shouldn't crop too much on the RHS in order to allow for that curvature of the road. I must have some other frames with more below, it's just that the tyre tracks are showing a bit. Luckily it was sand so not too obvious.

I'll definitely look at the gradient, hadn't thought about it. And yes, less at the top will work well, there isn't much to show there anyway and I am not too fond of those branches either.

Once again many thanks for feedback, I so appreciate it. Hope I can show you more over the next few days, week-end is near and I look forward to browse through those folders.

Warmest regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, I'm pleased you have more to choose from, this is where get some frames in the bag, then change orientation and shoot differently. The branches are so OOF that they really don't matter, leave them in. Tyre tracks are inevitable, India is worse, but nothing you can do, but suck it up. Nice PP, looks like taking a break has helped.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Gabriela ... this looks like Brutus , a massive male I guess .
Good to hear you had some time to shoot him with different kit .
Love the pose and the straight look at you .
Not a great fan of the road shots , but nothing one can do .... just make the best out of it .
You did well all around ... it can be improved with some tonal adjustments to guide the eyes more to the subject . Matter of taste . And it is now even very easy to do in LR

TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Gabriela, I'm pleased you have more to choose from, this is where get some frames in the bag, then change orientation and shoot differently. The branches are so OOF that they really don't matter, leave them in. Tyre tracks are inevitable, India is worse, but nothing you can do, but suck it up. Nice PP, looks like taking a break has helped.

Thank you so much Steve,
Indeed a very long break with PP and I forgot a lot of things but they are slowly coming back. Love to see all the improvements in LR and PSCC and still have to try out some of the new features, which is pretty exciting. Came back with a large number images from the Kruger trip but more avian than wildlife. I still have lots of unprocessed images from around here so all I need is... time and electricity
Shall post some more and see what you think, counting on you for guidance as always

Have a wonderful evening,

[Steve Kaluski]

so all I need is... time and electricity

Time to get back on the bike and peddle like mad... Carl can cook tonight.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hey Gabriela ... this looks like Brutus , a massive male I guess .
Good to hear you had some time to shoot him with different kit .
Love the pose and the straight look at you .
Not a great fan of the road shots , but nothing one can do .... just make the best out of it .
You did well all around ... it can be improved with some tonal adjustments to guide the eyes more to the subject . Matter of taste . And it is now even very easy to do in LR

TFS Andreas

Hello Andreas,

We shall call this male "Brutus", then I too thought he was massive until he got closer, he was indeed stocky and in superb condition but I have seen much bigger males...so I think he might still get bigger! He is probably about four years of age, but I am guessing.

Do agree with you about the roads and really dislike the tar... so was really lucky to find this male on a sandy road, a bit easier on the eye.

Regarding tonal adjustments I am in agreement with you, more can be done. I will definitely take another look this week-end. In all honesty I was a bit shy to push things too much, usually I leave a processed image for a while and then look again with fresh eyes and make some final adjustments. But I was so kin to share, and hear what you have to say -so thank you so much for feedback!

Kind regards,

[Morkel Erasmus]

Very nice, Gabriela.
I like the central placement - I've grown to like the central placement more over the years if used tastefully.
My add would be to up local contrast on the leopard itself, could use a bit more punch in the blacks for my tastes.
Where in Kruger did you stay during your visit?

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Morkel, I will definitely look at this again

We stayed in the Southern section, travelled through Swaziland. Rented a 4x4 trailer so we could move easily from camp to camp. I liked Berg-en-Dal the most

Would love to go to the Kalahari again but it takes three days to get there and another three to get back. At the moment I can only take two weeks off at a time, need to be at work certain times of the month when it is very busy.

Kind regards,

[Jonathan Ashton]

Not sure if II have seen this cat before! Looks good, real heavyweight I like as presented but I get the impression the background is slightly cloudy if that is the word - maybe that is the NR?

[Gabriela Plesea]

Not sure if II have seen this cat before! Looks good, real heavyweight I like as presented but I get the impression the background is slightly cloudy if that is the word - maybe that is the NR?

Jon, here is another frame, I just straightened it, no PP