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Steve Kaluski

Wildlife Moderator
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_F3A0513-Edit.jpg

Just one awesome and gorgeous female, I had the pleasure of, for almost 40mins, before calling it in. Originally we tracked her to just above a dried river bed and then she just decided to go walkabout and so we just followed her to the point where we were parked up and she literally just stopped right in front of our LC and laid down.

Subject: Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Camera: Canon EOS R3
Lens: EF 300 f/2.8L IS II USM
Exposure: 1/2500 at f/4 ISO2500
Original format: Landscape, FF width

All Raw captures perfectly exposed, confirmed by Raw Digger

Thanks to those who viewed or posted a comment on the previous image
 
_F3A0513-Edit-2.jpg

Thought I would have a play and look at perhaps a slightly different option in terms of colour, nothing too off piste, but...
 
She's such a beauty of a leopard, Steve.

Quite young, maybe around four years of age, great condition, super relaxed and posing for you - great opportunity you had and well taken advantage of!

For me the RP even more appealing, subject slightly brighter and a tad more contrast, the pink nose a little more obvious, coat looks superb. I also like the BG/FG colour better. Techs as usual spot on and your choice of aperture made the subject stand out. Well captured and processed, thank you so much for sharing!

PS. Don't you just love those paw pads🐾

Warmest regards,
Gabriela
 
She's such a beauty of a leopard, Steve.

She was stunning, in absolutely prime condition and possibly the best leopard I have seen since Beauty in Kwetsani who we had a great understanding with.

Quite young, maybe around four years of age, great condition, super relaxed and posing for you - great opportunity you had and well taken advantage of!

Gabriela you would have been in your element, similar to your 'Boys', but honestly you could not have asked for more, OK better habitat or in a tree, but hey.... it's Leopard. Jokingly I asked if the boys had sprayed the LC with Male pheromones. :)

For me the RP even more appealing, subject slightly brighter and a tad more contrast, the pink nose a little more obvious, coat looks superb. I also like the BG/FG colour better. Techs as usual spot on and your choice of aperture made the subject stand out.

Thanks, just playing on the laptop as it's grey and raining here, so just thought it might be fun just to have a play. The 300 is such a stonking lens, pin sharp as ever and delivers ultra sharp files, no need to spend vast amounts on the RF lens, that can go to other aspects.

Yes, I'm not thrilled about the habitat, this dried up, crusty river bed is not that great, but it is what it is. Further on there was a small pan in the river bead where Guinea foul, impala and a few birds came to drink, an opportunity for her, but zero cover.

Cheers for now.
 
Very pleasing image ! I love how the head is slightly brighter than the rest of the body. I think it helps draw viewers attention !

Quick question - I saw your interesting footnote regarding the RawDigger. A lame question - In this digital world where you can correct a few stops of exposure after the fact, how important is to get the right exposure when you take a picture?
 
Hi Narayanan and a warm welcome to the Wildlife forum.

A lame question - In this digital world where you can correct a few stops of exposure after the fact, how important is to get the right exposure when you take a picture?

Firstly there is never a 'Lame question' and often you may feel it's a lame or silly question, but there could be five other folk wanting to know the same answer, so never be afraid to ask. 👍

OK, this is my take....

Irrespective whether you shoot DSLR or Mirrorless you basically want to capture as much data in shot as possible without clipping both the Blacks or Whites. By maximising the data the better it is to manipulate the file, therefore you want to Expose to the right (ETTR) until you start to see any blinkies in the capture. If you do, then simply drop your ISO, Exposure or SS by a third, generally that resolves it. However, those blinkies could be highlights in water, the sun or something that you just cannot avoid and so you just let it go. It's far better to have a bright/thin image to start with as you know, you can always bring everything back because you have correctly exposed for the image, retaining data. It's when you under expose and have to 'lift' lighten the image your problems start, because you then import greater noise within the Darks/Shadows and all your lovely detail is in the mid tones.

Now, if you use Lr or Ps there is only a certain amount it can render and so 'may indicate' blown HL's not true, simply because most cameras under expose, even though it shows a perfect exposure, this is why I like to use on occasion RD, it shows the real exposure. I had a shot of a lion and along the front paw Lr said the HL's were blown, not true, I just whipped it across into another software and the data was all there, no blown HL's. Yes there are really good Raw converters which are free, but tend to be extremely complicated to use and take a great deal of time to understand and deploy.

Basically, get the best exposure you can, less Post Production, the better the file/image will look, but also avoid hefty cropping too. Hope this helps and perhaps at some point you can share some wildlife images too.

Take a moment to read this too, it might be of far greater value.


Cheers
Steve
 
Yes, I'm not thrilled about the habitat, this dried up, crusty river bed is not that great, but it is what it is. Further on there was a small pan in the river bead where Guinea foul, impala and a few birds came to drink, an opportunity for her, but zero cover.

Agree with you... but let us bear in mind, grass can also be a pain. In this particular instance the dried mud just makes her stand out better, all works so well here. As you know I wasn't so lucky, my Kruger lady leopard decided to lie down behind to a pile of elephant dung, this is the reason why I cannot bring myself to process the image yet... 😆
 
Hi Narayanan and a warm welcome to the Wildlife forum.



Firstly there is never a 'Lame question' and often you may feel it's a lame or silly question, but there could be five other folk wanting to know the same answer, so never be afraid to ask. 👍

OK, this is my take....

Irrespective whether you shoot DSLR or Mirrorless you basically want to capture as much data in shot as possible without clipping both the Blacks or Whites. By maximising the data the better it is to manipulate the file, therefore you want to Expose to the right (ETTR) until you start to see any blinkies in the capture. If you do, then simply drop your ISO, Exposure or SS by a third, generally that resolves it. However, those blinkies could be highlights in water, the sun or something that you just cannot avoid and so you just let it go. It's far better to have a bright/thin image to start with as you know, you can always bring everything back because you have correctly exposed for the image, retaining data. It's when you under expose and have to 'lift' lighten the image your problems start, because you then import greater noise within the Darks/Shadows and all your lovely detail is in the mid tones.

Now, if you use Lr or Ps there is only a certain amount it can render and so 'may indicate' blown HL's not true, simply because most cameras under expose, even though it shows a perfect exposure, this is why I like to use on occasion RD, it shows the real exposure. I had a shot of a lion and along the front paw Lr said the HL's were blown, not true, I just whipped it across into another software and the data was all there, no blown HL's. Yes there are really good Raw converters which are free, but tend to be extremely complicated to use and take a great deal of time to understand and deploy.

Basically, get the best exposure you can, less Post Production, the better the file/image will look, but also avoid hefty cropping too. Hope this helps and perhaps at some point you can share some wildlife images too.

Take a moment to read this too, it might be of far greater value.


Cheers
Steve
Thank you Steve for such a detailed explanation ! I am convinced that I need to get the most accurate exposure possible while taking picture. The link is invaluable as well.

So what I understand is, RawDigger helps learn as you make mistakes and improve up on it. Is that the idea of using a raw analysis software ?

Also, is RawDigger easy for someone who is a novice in the exposure analysis area ?

Thanks
Narayanan
 
Both pleasing shots, I don't see an enormous difference between the two versions, both look good I reckon you'd need to have been there to know which was the preferred version.
 
I don't see an enormous difference between the two versions, both look good I reckon you'd need to have been there to know which was the preferred version.

Cheers Jon, I just warmed the 2nd version up as I felt (although technically right in terms of WB), it just was too cold, Be warned, more to come of this awesome lady. :)
 

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