Southern Bobcat

[Shawn Marques]

I was walking through a path of deep woods, looking for pileated woodpeckers when I suddenly came upon this bobcat taking in the early morning sun. Luckily, the cat was in an open area, about 12 feet up, on a dead tree. I have gone back to this sight several times hoping to come across the bobcat once again, but with no luck.

Canon 40D, Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM
1/250s @ f/5.6, ISO 250, 840mm
Monfrotto tripod, Wimberley head

[Fabs Forns]

Lucky catch, Shawn, great eyes he has. I find the contrast a little too much, and having mixed light did not help.

[Shawn Marques]

Lucky catch, Shawn, great eyes he has. I find the contrast a little too much, and having mixed light did not help.

Hi Fabs. I agree, and this is one of the most challenging images I ever had to post-process. Is there any hope for this image? If I post-processed the cat, tree and bg separately, do you think that would help the contrast problem? Thanks!

[Fabs Forns]

Shawn, I downloaded it and played with. Bear in mind that i was working with very little pixels versus the full size image.
I did an inverted curve to reduce contrast. (Anchor the center and pull the left side up.)

The I selectively blurred the tree some and selected the cat and lifted the curve on him.
To finish, I used the Burn tool in the tree and the outer parts of the frame,
Hope you like it!

[Stephen Stephen]

Shawn nice image overall. Fabs has provided you with a good start on how to improve the original.

[Shawn Marques]

Shawn, I downloaded it and played with. Bear in mind that i was working with very little pixels versus the full size image.
I did an inverted curve to reduce contrast. (Anchor the center and pull the left side up.)

The I selectively blurred the tree some and selected the cat and lifted the curve on him.
To finish, I used the Burn tool in the tree and the outer parts of the frame,
Hope you like it!

Fabs, that is extremely creative- what a gift you have! I would never have thought of that in a million years! Thank you!

[Steve Canuel]

Shawn,
I have a pic/story just like this except mine was a gray fox I found napping in the top of a 40 ft ponderosa pine. He stayed there for over an hour while I waited for the light to improve (bright sun and dark shadows from the branches). It never did but everytime I go past that tree, I take a look up there. I like the pose and the perch you have in this image.
Steve

[Robert Amoruso]

I did it a bit different:

Reverse S-Curve.
Background copy Shadow/Highlight Adjustment to a highlight only selection. I then up the amount to 73% and range at 25%
Selective color with 2% black in the neutral and black channels to add some pop that it lost inthe reverse s-curve w/o adding contrast.

[Shawn Marques]

I did it a bit different:

Reverse S-Curve.
Background copy Shadow/Highlight Adjustment to a highlight only selection. I then up the amount to 73% and range at 25%
Selective color with 2% black in the neutral and black channels to add some pop that it lost inthe reverse s-curve w/o adding contrast.

Thanks, Robert. This looks great, too! I knew there was hope for this image!

[D. Robert Franz]

A fine image of a hard to capture subject. I like the composition and the placement of the eyes of the bobcat on the upper left PP.