Bobcat! + redo x 3

Hi Barb,

There are several ways for getting the right exposure and your technique worked very well.  You can also use aperture priority and then use exposure compensation to work out the differences between BG and subject. I use that when photographing birds and fast moving insects.   In this case, a high key presentation resulted from your efforts and I like the graphic and simple presentation of this image.  I like the composition--I would not do any more cropping--comp looks fine. Well done..................Jim

WoW!  A special image Barbara.  Congratulations on capturing him in a uncluttered environment. Thanks for posting.

Hi Barbara,

Always fun to get shots on first sighting of a "new species" - congratulations. I like how the cat is positioned in the "V" of the branches. And the eye contact is great.

An alternate approach to the exposure challenge would be to expose to just retain highlights in the sky and then increase the exposure of the bobcat during post-processing (i.e., selective exposure adjustment). This can be done many different ways (during post-processing) and, of course, the amount of exposure tweaking (whether it is shadow recovery or selective exposure adjustment via masking, etc.) is partly dependent on the camera the image was captured with...especially the noise characteristics of the camera. This method has the advantage of allowing you to present the image as seen (which MIGHT mean in this case some light-on-light detail in the background) rather than choosing to expose EITHER the cat correctly OR the background correctly. Of course, how you want to present the final shot (e.g., high key as above or more "as seen") is a creative decision that is up to the photographer.

Cheers...

Brad

Excellent! I suggest converting to B&W especially that there is very little color to begin with. Might make a big difference in how the sky is perceived.

Cheers,

Hisham.

What a great experience and opportunity. Even though I've seen bobcats now on four occasions I've never had one like this and I am jealous.

I agree with your decision to spot meter and get the exposure correct on the bobcat while lettting the sky go whiute. I've sent you privately a way to address this and I look forward to seeing how you manage..

Looks great to me Barbara, a beautiful high key image and the Bobcat looks very relaxed in your presence, congrats.  The only thing I would consider is cropping about half of the white sky on the right out of the image 

Barbara: this is a very simple and elegant photo of the cat. I think you did the right thing by exposing for the cat, since your overcast sky was likely featureless. My only minor suggestion would be to lighten the cat's face just a bit. Well done!

On the technical side of your camera, you mention that you are shooting in Manual mode. The next step would be to consider in shooting in Auto ISO, knowing that your camera will choose the lowest ISO needed for an exposure. I'm not familiar with your camera model, but I assume that you can modify as desired via exposure compensation. Your camera will also likely allow you to set a low and high limit for ISO.
Working in Manual and Auto ISO makes life easy. You set the parameters you want for aperture and shutter speed and the camera chooses your ISO, which you can modify as needed. Works a treat. Richard

Hi Barbara,

Just want to add one thing after seeing Richard's comment: Auto ISO is implemented quite differently on your 7D than it is on Richard's Nikons. Everything Richard says about Auto ISO is spot-on correct on Nikon cameras, but I think you'd find some pretty major limitations on how Auto ISO works on your camera. LATER iterations of Canon models did seen an improved Auto ISO implementation and now with current models they are virtually identical between brands.

Cheers...

Brad

Barbara, I too shoot manual with a 7D Mark II, and I have been very wary of Auto ISO, because of the fact that I get too much grain under most lighting conditions sometimes at 1600 and usually when it's at 2000 or above .  This camera just doesn't handle higher ISOs very well, so it is important to control this function.  You could set the limits on your Auto ISO but then you could too frequently find yourself in a situation where the camera won't shoot.  I think you exposed it properly, by doing spot metering on the Bobcat and letting the sky go white.  I actually think this enhances the picture by putting all the viewer's focus on the cat without any background distraction.

First, let me say congratulations on finding such a cooperative Bobcat.  I would call you lucky, but I know how hard you work at getting these photos and the harder you work, the luckier you get as they say.  I also stay away fom autoiso mainly because I don't use it enough and I wouldn't want to leave it to chance.  For this scene though, I would probably at least dial in about +2 to +3 on the exposure compensation.  That might not get it perfect, but it would give you more to work with later in post processing.  To my eye this seems like it might also benefit from a slight clockwise rotation, although I could be way off on this.

Here's a redo with some sky.  Thank you to Richard Ditch for help with this.  I don't think this is quite as good as Richard's version, but I think it's much better with the sky. 

I'll post another image of the bobcat as he worked his way around the tree trying to figure out the best way to get down.  I'll just post one more here, and maybe I'll post a short series in the Wildlife Photography forum.

I like the added sky.  You've got some kind of line that runs horizontally along the nose area that goes through the whole photo though.  Not sure what that is from.  Getting better though.  Let's see some more! 

I think I know what that line is.  I'll fix it now.

Okay, I decided to reverse the sky because maybe the clouds would be higher instead of lower.  I think the lines are not here.  I also lightened his face a bit.  Someone mentioned that and I forgot to do it.

Okay, Brad, if you could be very patient with me, I just wanted to show people what this looked like with a texture as a background.  I'm going to move on now, I promise, and I don't anticipate doing anything with this many redos again.

Barbara,
I would be extremely happy with this as a first sighting!
I prefer the 1st image!

Barbara, congratulations on this find.  North American cat sightings are always memorable due to their relative scarcity and elusive nature.  To get one posing for you up in a tree like this is great.  Overall, I think you did well on the exposure, but I agree with those that suggest a different crop.  At the moment, the cat is sort of stuck in no man's land... not quite centered, but not quite nestled in one of those thirds we often talk about either.

Max