A Young Leopard Approaches

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 1Dmk4, Canon 300 f2.8 IS, handheld. S/s 1/640s at f2.8, Iso 800. Cropped in ACR, toning and adjust brush work in ACR, resized, some bright highlights in fur toned down in PS. Image taken after sunset. A very young male leopard, still under care of his mother at the time.
Leopard is central in crop, but is looking directly at me. I did get another frame that works better vertically later, when his tail was tucked behind him, and he fitted the vertical format better.
Photographed at Mashatu, Tuli area, Botswana.
Cheers
Grant

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Grant,like this one very much .the walking pose ,the look right into my eyes just perfect.I think you could do a little NR on the BG and i would crop a bit from the RHS of the image.At least on my monitor i do have Cyan/Blue cast in the highlights and bright mid tones .

Cheers andreas

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Grant
tried to get rid of the cyan and blue.When i opened the image in PS the cast was almost gone,i think simply because you had no color profile attached to the image.

Hope you do not mind about my try. If so ,sorry.

Cheers Andreas

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for the comments Adreas, much appreciated. Your point taken with regard to the blue cast in the brighter parts of the image. For the crop, I prefer not to break from the 3:2 ratio too much (unless for pano) whilst posting, so with that in mind, I felt it might get a bit too tight if I cropped from the right side and the bottom to balance?
cheers
Grant

[Harshad Barve]

Terrific image Grant , love the POV and nice BG/FG too
TFS

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Harshad, I was lucky with location here for sure! Andreas, no problem with reposting. Not sure what I am missing in terms of the colour profile, I used File/Save For Web and Devices/ and made sure that the check box that says Convert To sRGB was ticked?
Cheers
Grant

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - nice to see you posting again. Really like the intense eye contact here and the almost stalking pose. Feels a little tight at the top but the low pov, creamy bg and techs all combine for a great image.

TFS,
Rachel

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Rachel
Thanks for commenting. I have more space in the original shot, all around if needed. I went a little tighter on this one as the shape that the cat formst doesnt fit a camera sensor shape that well
Cheers
Grant

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, nice opening shot.

Andreas is correct in both Colour profile and Colour cast, but you know how to deal with both of those now. Just watch the whites don't go to hot. Might want to check the sharpness of the whiskers LHS, if the eye is sharp then the whiskers to, might have got lost if you applied an NR mask? If you have it, then a tad more above I feel would help if you are keeping this format, but again, I feel the same way as Andreas, but we know it's oh so personal

When you have a minute, drop me a line, did you see Mike D there?

Nice to see back adding some nice imagery a appreciate the constructive postings too.

TFS
Steve

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice pose and eye contact, the crop and comp work well in the OP for my tatse, and I like the choice of 2.8 for DOF. The colors/whites do seem a bit blue/green and thats probably why im seeing a bit of an olive color coming through. Also find im seeing noise especially in the tail and ears as well as the BG...awesome to get them out in the open on what looks like a natural surface....Nice to see you posting here again!

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for comments Steve and Dumay. Steve, I am not sure I understand the colour profile problem...I saved as described in my response above, and the checkbox for Convert to sRGB was ticked in PS, File Save For Web dialogue. Same as I have been doing for quite a while now, at least a year?
There is no noise reduction applied, and the lhs whiskers do not show up as sharp as the rhs whiskers because they have not been sharpened, as I did not try to include them in my selection of the leopard. They also do not show up so much against the similarly toned background. Dumay, some noise visible as this is quite an aggressive crop, thanks for pointing that out.
cheers
Grant

[Steve Kaluski]

Just sent you a PM.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Grant this is awesome, love the cats pose and sharpness. I would also maybe consider a vertical crop on this image, it could work very nicely.

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Grant,
As I have said before, this is a wonderful image. A beautiful pose and POV with excellent detail. I agree with Vivaldo with regard to the portrait style for the image as it would have had a different affect and I would be interested to see how it would affect the image.
Well done and thanks for sharing,
Best wishes,
Mark.

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for your thoughts and comments Vivaldo, and Mark and the PM Steve. Mark and Vivaldo, I have reposted a vertical crop of the shot. It is only half-processed though, so just posted for composition comparison. Steve, or anybody, please can you tell me if the colour profile is now embedded in this repost?
Thanks again for your time and thoughts. I do also have another image from a few moments later, when the leopard had tucked his tail behind him, that better fits a vertical crop..
cheers
Grant

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve, or anybody, please can you tell me if the colour profile is now embedded in this repost?

Yep, sorted!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Grant, it's awesome to see you posting again my friend
I won't touch on what's already said...but what struck me immediately on the OP when I viewed it earlier today and now again is that it seems quite 'grainy' - not sure at which quality setting you saved here and if compression played a part, but fine detail is just not up there with your other posts (sorry if I come across as blunt - that being said it is an awesome shot...just feel that overall IQ is a tad below your usual standard)?

I particularly note it in some BG noise (easy to sort), and some graininess on the ears and the eyes...perhaps it's me that's a bit tired!
Fabulous pose, POV and angle though!
Portrait crop works well in this case.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Morkel
point taken about grainy feel and noise, I need to clean up edges of adjust brush mask in the raw shot, (might have masked it when I was a bit tired :-)) and also need to run NR on background. That ought to sort it. Will attend to that on my original image...thanks for the comments and time
cheers
Grant

[Robert Amoruso]

Grant,

I think your recrop is too severe. I suggest the following once you have included more room on top. ROT with the upper left power point right between the eyes. Yes it is a square crop but I think it works well here.

This is a screen grab showing the 3x3 ROT grid. I also ran Local Contrast Enhancement on the image to make the detail pop and liked the results a lot. I suggest giving that a try. USM on BG copy at 20/50/0.

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for that repost Robert, your time and input is much appreciated
cheers
Grant

[Kiran Khanzode]

Grant Bhai, I love the image as presented....

Superb execution, as always, I agree with Morkel, I think the focus fell on the front paw instead of the eyes...perhaps ?

Btw, a couple of my clients in my recent trip to India had only golden words about you and your talent (and they have been with you on repeat trips)....thought you should know ! :-) . One day, we will need your help to explore Botswana......

Regards,
Kiran

[Ken Watkins]

Roberts repost certainly works for me, must be nice to find an uncollared Leopard in Mashatu

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for the comments Kiran, much appreciated. Look forward to seeing you in Botswana sometime soon!
Thanks for commenting Ken, I saw 5 leopards during a short visit to Mashatu, zero collars

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Grant, great perspective here, and just love the walking pose and eye contact.

I was in the Mahatu reserve in Oct last year, and stayed at a privately owned lodge ( rock lodge, very close to the cross over at the border ) Moolman was our guide. I believe we drive into the same areas when out viewing.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Stuart, thanks for commenting on the pic. I remember your images of the lion, hyaena and jackal at the giraffe from Mashatu on BPN, and I asked at the camp if they remembered that sighting, which they did! I think I was just there a little after you, we were there in early November...I am back there in August, really looking forward to it!
cheers
Grant