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Thread: One of my favourite Boys

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    Default One of my favourite Boys

    Taken at Little Kwara on the Tsum Tsum plains.

    1D mark IV
    500 F4
    1/400@F6.3

    Post Processing: cooled the colour, sharpened.

    Last edited by Russell Johnson; 05-01-2010 at 05:39 PM.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Russell, it's a 'nice' shot, love the detail in the eyes and POV, but I am just no so keen on the overall warmth of the image and having the cheetah in the centre of frame. Taken I guess in that lovely golden light towards the end of the day I'm just not sure. This is purely a personal thing Russell and others will, I am sure, love it. I would be tempted to crop from the bottom rh corner and have about half the space you currently have at present on the lhs, I think it works.

    BTW Please can you keep to the max width of 1024px when posting thanks. ;)

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Hi Russell, it's a 'nice' shot, love the detail in the eyes and POV, but I am just no so keen on the overall warmth of the image and having the cheetah in the centre of frame. Taken I guess in that lovely golden light towards the end of the day I'm just not sure. This is purely a personal thing Russell and others will, I am sure, love it. I would be tempted to crop from the bottom rh corner and have about half the space you currently have at present on the lhs, I think it works.

    BTW Please can you keep to the max width of 1024px when posting thanks. ;)

    TFS
    Steve
    Thanks for your input, Steve.

    For me, this has been a difficult images to capture in terms of WB. This was a sunset straight after a rainstorm, so will always be far more intense.

    I didn't mention composition in my initial post, but was looking to see the responses. I have a full ranging set of non-centred images, though wanted to test the water and see if this was strong enough to pull off as a centred subject.

    When I have the subject slightly off centre, I feel the eyes lose some impact. I will post an example over the next couple of days.

    Cheers

    PS have resized the image through Flickr :)

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Russell appreciate the feedback. You know what the conditions were like so i guess I am batting it back to you to confirm as to the faithfulness of the image. I just fell that it is a tad warm, however this is only one view :) WB I always leave it to auto, if I need to tweak then adjust when in RAW converter?

    Looking at the image, you are to the left, as the Cheetah looks on, past you, but if you can post some others then great. would suggest some selective sharpening on the Cheetah only, it can take it and improves the image. Curious why you use Flickr, as I have seen it drop the quality of the image, can you not post direct from your HD or ex HD? Safer & easier. :)

    Cheers
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Hi Russell appreciate the feedback. You know what the conditions were like so i guess I am batting it back to you to confirm as to the faithfulness of the image. I just fell that it is a tad warm, however this is only one view :) WB I always leave it to auto, if I need to tweak then adjust when in RAW converter?

    Looking at the image, you are to the left, as the Cheetah looks on, past you, but if you can post some others then great. would suggest some selective sharpening on the Cheetah only, it can take it and improves the image. Curious why you use Flickr, as I have seen it drop the quality of the image, can you not post direct from your HD or ex HD? Safer & easier. :)

    Cheers
    Steve
    Should have been clearer, I was referring to WB in post processing, auto is not always so great in these circumstances.......I would certainly not have the time to think about that when shooting.

    As for flickr, perhaps I should just post direct. Though my flickr is private and only for family to view.

    Cheers
    Russell

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Russell, irrespective whether it's private or not, they host it for you.

    Post direct from your HD and see if you notice any difference in quality. Also note sure about copyright once you host from their site, but we don't want to go there.;)

    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    BPN Viewer Tom Graham's Avatar
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    Steve - "Post direct from your HD...." HD = hard drive?
    Do you mean the/his/my PC HD?
    I'm going to try it here now using a jpg on my PC HD -
    Ooops, the BNP image window wants an URL location, far as I know my PC does not have one. Please, clarify this for me, thanks.

    Tom

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    BPN Viewer Tom Graham's Avatar
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    I like it as is, but then again I also agree with Steve about being it being very "warm". I wonder how in real life, being there, our brain would perceive it? I have tried to study this in real life and the answer seems that I perceive a correction of around one-half of a true WB correction. Probably other visual clues also influence the mental process. It might be interesting to do that experiment exactly, near sundown look closely at model/persons face and include a small grey card way down in the corner. Then take some photos and immediately download into a viewer. And adjust color balance from memory with the grey card hidden or cropped out. Then compare all of it. Anyone know of any real, scientific, experiment/studies on this? This WB question comes up a lot, and especially for me because I like the "golden hours".

    FWIW, I took cheetah into PS and played with warmth (lowered it) and liked that. So for me it's sort of a coin toss. Also played with some cropping and prefer it cropped so cheetah is a bit towards one side, either left or right, can't decide there either :)

    Tom

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    Robert Amoruso
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Graham View Post
    Steve - "Post direct from your HD...." HD = hard drive?
    Do you mean the/his/my PC HD?
    I'm going to try it here now using a jpg on my PC HD -
    Ooops, the BNP image window wants an URL location, far as I know my PC does not have one. Please, clarify this for me, thanks.

    Tom
    Tom,

    Forum Contributors have to post from a remote site. If you join BPN then you can post images to the BPN server and have it hosted there.

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    BPN Viewer Tom Graham's Avatar
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    Robert - thanks, yes, I get it now. Steve also said "... your HD or ex HD...." Should have guessed it was really BPN HD.
    Tom

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    Tom, I post photos straight from my hard drive, very easy to do.

    Russell, I for one love the warmth of this image and don't find it unrepresentative of what I have seen in the Mara late in the day after a thunderstorm. I don't know what the vegetation was in the background, but if it was grasses with any sort of russet in the heads, then you would undoubtedly increase the warmth.

    As for cropping, centred with good eye contact works for me, but in this case I don't find that the eye contact is strongly enough focussed on you (and consequently us, the viewer). The cheetah doesn't quite have enough tension in its' body to hold the central position but I'm not sure how I would crop it to strengthen the image. In fact, I would hesitate to crop it when it is someone else's vision. You have a fine set of cheetah images from that trip in lovely light.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Robert - thanks, yes, I get it now. Steve also said "... your HD or ex HD...." Should have guessed it was really BPN HD.
    Tom, did not realise that being a non-member the Rules are different.

    I will to to clarify as simply as I can for you how I load an image and what I meant above.

    HD = Hard drive (your own PC/MAC)
    ex HD = External Hard drive plugged into your computer, neither reference was to BPN HD

    When I want to upload an image I go to the window Manage Attachments below this dialog box
    A window pops up and I choose 'Upload File from your computer' click upload
    Close window. Post

    No need for a third party, safe, no loss of quality, no loss of Rights.

    Apologies Stuart in hi-jacking your thread.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    OK,.............. getting back to the image.
    Lovely image here Russell, as much as I like the golden hour colour, I would cool the WB just a touch more, central comp is OK with me.
    Uploading from Flickr has certainly softened this image and could now do with some more USM on the Cheetah. A very well done nonetheless!
    TFS


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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Lovely low angle, and I like the head on approach. Good eye contact, and I like the concentrated stare. With regards to the WB/ warmth, maybe a tad over saturated, but you were there. Sweet light can create awesome colours, and in some cases, they do look un-natural. Placement wise, I would maybe move the cheetah to the left a little.

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    terrific image , love the way animal walking and loghting here , I may recheck WB
    TFS

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    lovely image , would have loved to have viewed without the copyright right bang in middle of subject.....
    regarding the WB.. purely subjective,at the end of day the non photographer is not going to notice..
    center placement works for me, nice to break the rules:)..
    over saturated a tad but again subjective..
    agree image is soft..
    would love you to repost again without center placement and some more TLC in PS..

    peter

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    Todd Frost
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    Good advice already given. Moving cheetah left in frame would strengthen the image IMHO. TFS
    Todd

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    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Hi all,

    Thanks for the feedback. It has been difficult from memory trying to play around with WB.

    Have altered the composition a little.

    Let me know what you think?

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Exactly my thoughts on the crop Russell, colour now is between the OP and this one :)

    Like it! ;)
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Alfred Forns
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    Love the re post Russell Just what I was thinking !!! The top was attracting attention and excellent crop from left !!

    btw WB wise I normally leave it in auto except at times when I set it to cloudy just to see what it looks like in the LCD So easy to do at the time of conversion ... and can tweak the color with a tiny tint adjustment !!

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    Russell, I think you have nailed the comp now, IMO! :)

    Changing the crop has given more a feel that the cheetah is looking at you rather than past you and has increased the intensity. As far as the WB and the effect of the light, I would also go somewhere between the two posts as I think you have lost a little of that really beautiful warm light. BUT, that is very subjective and I know most of the others felt the OP was too warm (but I loved it!). Isn't photography wonderful.

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Russel - terrific cat in sweet light, I like the repost but the colour is now a bit greenish? might be my screen.
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Loved the Composition on the re-post

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    Rusell, the repost looks much better. The light is amazing, so golden.

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    Having commented back a ways about WB and cropping, I like your re-post very much.
    Tom

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