Leopard at Dusk

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 14, 2009270 views10 comments

I had this shot of a leopard in my head long before I left for Africa. So when we encountered this beauty in the bush, in South Africa, I had a Canon 5D, with a 70-200 mm lens in hand as I crouched down in the bed of the truck to take this shot at eye level.

When I look at this photo all that comes to mind is the SHEER JOY I felt when this leopard, that we had been tracking for about 45 minutes, finally stopped in her tracks to pose for a portrait.

I'm getting ready to order some prints but before I do that, I welcome some suggestions--should the crop come in a little closer? Should I saturate more? What else can I do to make the catch light in her eyes stand out more?

I prepared the RAW file from the camera using Camera Raw, then Photoshop CS, while eliminating noise with Dfine and managing contrast with the Darken/Lighten & Warmth/Brilliance feature on Color Efex before "saving for web."

Many thanks, in advance, for your time and ideas about how to enhance this photo for print.

Canon 5D
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens
f/2.8 in AV (aperture priority) mode at 1/50th shutter speed
ISO 1000-Darkness was coming on quick

Pat Buys
PK Buys Photography
www.pkbuysphotography.com

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on November 14, 2009 at 6:58 PM

Pat, I can't give any advice on the prints, but this is a perfectly lovely shot. I wouldn't change the crop or composition. It is great like it is. I do think there is a red cast that you should do something about and some warming that would help.

Some of the older heads around here can give you better printing advice. BTW, welcome to NPN! This is a magnificent first post!

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Gomez on November 14, 2009 at 10:46 PM

Wonderfully framed shot! I really like the eye contact.
Just for the sake of eliminating the slight distraction... I would try (just barely) burning the OOF grass just behind the leopard's right arm (your left)... I dunno if anyone agrees, just my opinion.

Welcome to NPN!

Registered on March 3, 2007, 206 Posts, 1853 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Theodore on November 14, 2009 at 11:23 PM

Very nice capture. My only nit is the green blotch on its side. It's a little distracting. You might try to isolate it and desaturate that area.

Registered on May 7, 2008, 18 Posts, 54 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Walters on November 15, 2009 at 8:28 AM

Great eye contact and comp. I agree about removing the OOF green on the left.

Registered on October 30, 2005, 405 Posts, 3693 Comments

Comment posted by Patricia K. Buys on November 15, 2009 at 9:03 AM

EXCELLENT suggestions, all! Removing the red cast resulted in a huge improvement. Still working on getting rid of the green...isn't so easy. But, yes, it's annoying. Many thanks to those of you who offered some help. I appreciate your input.

Registered on November 12, 2009, 7 Posts, 13 Comments

Comment posted by Sam Rua on November 15, 2009 at 5:31 PM

Very good capture, Pat. I wouldn't change the comp and agree with others on the green. Tough to do so I wouldn't worry too much if you can't pull it off without degrading the image.

Registered on September 9, 2006, 130 Posts, 2281 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on November 15, 2009 at 11:56 PM

Hi Pat and welcome to NPN!

I can understand your joy completely, there is something magical about leopards that makes one feel so thrilled when encountering them. They are also difficult subjects to photograph as they are shy by nature and like to hang out in dense vegetation and the fact that they are nocturnal hunters also does not help. The difficulties are clear in your techs and image, extremely low light and OOF vegetation in front of the subject, which is a bit unfortunate. I do like the relaxed pose and the sweet interested look on her face. Apart from the slight reddish cast mentioned the colors, lighting and saturation all look natural to me, so if so wish your print to reflect that look, don't change a thing. But if you want a more punchy look, you could selectively saturate the yellows of the skin and/or you could select the eyes and and contrast and saturation there. It all depends on how you want the image to look like.

There is a trick that may work to get rid of the green blotch. I will give it a try on your image and get back to you if it proves successful.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on November 16, 2009 at 12:03 AM

It proves very difficult on this small version Pat, but what you can try is duplicate a layer, set the blending mode to color and now take a brush and sample the color you want and paint it over the green. However, you need to paint different colors to keep the lines in-between the rosettes (spots) white. Good luck.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on November 16, 2009 at 2:15 AM

First of all, a very warm welcome to NPN, Pat! And what a magnificent cat to start your innings with! Others have already mentioned the oof vegetation in front of the big cat, so I won't repeat it. I wouldn't crop anymore, but would try and make this image a little warmer. As far as the eyes go, you could try to brighten/saturate/sharpen in ACR.

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on November 19, 2009 at 4:51 PM

This is a wonderful pose. I would desaturate the green from that foreground OOF leaf/grass to make it less noticible.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments