Something Different for Me

[Rachel Hollander]

The Bronx Zoo in NYC has 6 new tiger cubs, 3 Malayan and 3 Amur/Siberian. These are the first cubs born at the zoo since 1997. The Malayans were born in April and the Amurs in May but just went on exhibit in early October. I went up to practice with the 7D and my 70-200 f4.

This image was totally by accident. I was focused on the cub on the log and his brother leapt into the frame. Before joining BPN, this would have been an automatic delete for me but BPN has changed some of my thinking and the image intrigued me. I imposed upon Steve Kaluski and he graciously helped me with several step by step suggestions to improve the image. This was good practice and a learning experience for me as I am still a relative newbie to PP and PSE.

I had cropped the rear of the third cub out from the rhs before sending it to Steve. He suggested a slight crop from the lhs to get rid of part of a tree, a slight blur of the tree on the lhs and the removal of a dark tree in the bg. Steve also suggested variants in the sharpness of some of the elements.

Thanks to Steve for his time and patience. Any faults with the image are totally mine.

Canon 7D
70-200 f4 @ 98mm
1/125
f4
ISO 400
HH and shot through glass.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Hilary Hann]

Well done Rachel, especially for being so proactive in improving your PP. Steve is very generous with his time and knowledge.

[Steve Kaluski]

Firstly, just to clarify, the image was almost there (about 97%) and any tweaks, amendments etc were indeed minimal and it was how to make those changes. All work was down to Rachel such as cropping, colour, sharpening etc.

I like it because it's a moment in time, fun, a one off and different to the more 'static' images. Perhaps technically it isn't perfect, but it's a bold move I think to post it and hope it gets the right feedback. Yes, I would like to have seen the face of the cub on the log and for it to be sharper, but looks like you were fighting for light based on the techs. It also looks quite 'grainy' especially in the BG. The slight crop on the lhs hasn't IMHO lost anything as it was minimal, but the loss of the OOF branch was distracting. Well done for posting it and hope you can apply some of the little bits of advice in future images.

TFS
Steve

[Geoff Warnock]

I agree with the critiques so far, but also very much agree that the end result is a nice and interesting image. All of the PP seems successful except I wonder if something has gone wrong at the tip of the jumping tiger's tail? It looks like a bit has been cloned out in treating something else. Hopefully I'm mistaken and it's just an artefact of the motion blur.

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent action , well played cubs ;)
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks all for the comments and encouragement. It was fun to see what I could make of it and practice my PP and step out of my comfort zone. Still obviously not a wall hanger or even a print for me, but a good exercise. Still not sure how I feel about a ton of PP on images that represent nature but I figure the zoo is already an artificial environment. I too wish we could see more of the cub sitting on the log.

Steve - definitely fighting for light and fighting getting jostled by lots of kids and their parents (not sure who pushes more :D). The way the exhibit is set up the people are in a darkened wooden enclosure viewing through glass. Unfortunately the glass has lots of streaks, fingerprints and nose prints on the lower half. There are lots of trees in the exhibit and you are constantly fighting shadows and lighting issues.

Geoff - it must be an artifact because it is that way in the original RAW file.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Hilary Hann]

Rachel, I use these sorts of situations to hone skills for when you are in the wild. Those shooting conditions sound really tough, but probably not any more so than the light and dark of the tiger's natural habitat and the jostling and noise from lots of enthusiastic tourists in their 4x4s. So you will be really well prepared for any tiger safari which you might do (hint … go with Harshad, he seems to find those cats in good light! :D )

I think you've shown what can be done quite well here and as I do with lots of my wildlife pix, sometimes it isn't about the quality of the initial capture but suggestions on how to treat what you've taken and how to improve it next time … at least that is what I look for.