This leopard was way out on the Masai Mara plains, almost to the Serengeti. Hardly a tree in sight apart from these two and not the place you would expect to see the solitary, secretive cat. I wanted to show the leopard as a small, insignificant part of its' environment but still of importance. I hope you can see it nestled into the tree! :o I did intentionally keep this image dark and a little foreboding.
It is unfortunate that the subject was that distant. It is hard to make it out. I might have sacrificed some of the smaller tree to show the leopard better. While keeping it small is nice, if you wouldn't say it was there, it would be hard to find a subject other than the trees. But I like the image overall.
I agree that the leopard is hard to see at this size but is quite visible at full resolution. I suppose I'll have to assess it when printed. Thanks for the feedback. :)
Peter, I was going to call it 'spot the leopard' but my husband didn't like that! :)
I don't use any filters, I have made layers of different images and blended them with different modes depending on what mood I'm after and what the base image requires. It only suits certain types of image, well that is what I've found after hours and hours and many failed attempts.
Peter, my husband is rarely right but sometimes I humour him! :)
This is roughly what I do. I choose a subject matter which has some potential, by that I mean that it has to have basic composition qualities but it also needs sky, or distant hills which have faded. This background is important to provide a space for the texture layers. I'm experimenting now with some techniques where this isn't so important, but at the moment it is working.
I then have a selection of skies with different clouds and colours. All these skies are from the same area where the original image was taken. Some thing dramatic. I also have a selection of texture images … for instance I have photographed concrete walls, old plaster walls, pebbles and foaming water.
I add the layers to my original and use blend modes as appropriate. I can't tell you which ones to use as it depends on your chosen layers. I do use hard light a lot, with varying opacity. I then, depending on the result, using masking layers to bring back my main subject. This isn't always necessary and wasn't with this image.
The effects depend on the layers and blends you use and I have dozens of images in the trash as it doesn't always work. I feel that I'm getting a better feel for what will work. Hope that helps.
Excellent mood and composition, Hilary. I do wish the leopard was more noticeable, but as a large print it might be fine. Texturizing can take a lot experimentation to do well, but you're nailing it. Don't forget that you can also desaturate or change the colors and contrast on the texture layers to vary the effect even more.
The Leopard
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