I've still got over 1500 images to process from our Kalahari trip, but this one captured my attention the other night and I gave it a bit of a work-up.
We followed a trio of cheetahs along the dry Auob riverbed in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa. They had been lying under a tree for the entire day, and got up in the late afternoon to look for supper. Unfortunately their attempt at stalking a springbuck was thwarted.
I decided to work a few angles on this image since it was a nice clean view to the walking cheetah. I like the way the B&W version came out as well, and might post later for reference. In this one, I created 3 exposures from the RAW file and processed as an HDR in Photomatix.
I really like the rendering of the cheetah and its environment here as it gives the image a painting-like feel.
Would love to have your thoughts...does it work for you, or not and why not??
Techs:
Canon 40D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 400mm
f5.6 @ 1/500 SS @ ISO-500
Exp +0.3
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 11-07-2009 at 01:26 PM.
Hi Morkel: I agree with Ken that this is a drop-dead gorgeous shot right out of "Nature" on PBS. What a lithe creature and an excellent composition by the way. Background is just right in my view. My favorite part about the photo is the mane that appears to be growing out of its neck area on top. No worries on eye contact here. If it were looking at you it might walk into a tree or a landcruiser or something. Very cool.
A big thumbs up on this one Morkel, the body color against the two tone BG is a standout.
And to think I spent 23 days in Botswana recently and caught just a glimpse of a Cheetah family.:(
This is a great shot, the background looks great, so does the cheetah. The one thing that did grab my eye was the grass around it's feet. It looks like the HDR process made an odd contrast or sharpening appearance. I had the same thing happen when I tried HDR on wildlife, I blurred those details just a bit.
Hey Mork, you couldnt have asked for a more clearly opportunity. Good walking pose, and the more I look at this, the more it gives that " painting effect". I like this lots. If I had to change anything, I would maybe darken the BG a tad. Well captured mate.
it's humbling to read this kind of response to an experimental shot. thanks a lot everyone!! :)
@ Jared - I actually only ran sharpening on the cheetah as the HDR process did sharpen everything a tad. I created a duplicate layer, sharpened it and erased everything but the cheetah at high magnification. It looks good at full size but might have crept back in when resharpening after downsizing...