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Thanks Gerry for the loan of your precious AF-S 300mm f/4....it is a wonderful lens and I am afraid that I am becoming quite attached to it.

These are straight out of camera and resized. I am blown away by this lens and would love for you guys to let me know what you think of these images and how I can improve them next time I am out there as well as any touch ups that I can play with between now and then.

Probably the best images I have ever captured of my favourite Snow Leopards.....couldnt have done it without the 300mm


Lioness through the glass and grass....


Struggling for shutter speed.....and consequently aperture


Hi 1 on my D300.....I dont think I have ever seen Hi 1 look so good

Hey Cameron,

#3 is the strongest with a neat composition.

#1 has relatively flat light on the cat. [nothing to do with the lens I guess] You could easily dodge and burn to make this look better.

#2 I am undecided about the green stuff in front of the lion although it could grow on me.

#4 is a quirky compo which doesn't catch my eye.

hth but take it with a grain of salt as I am no wildlife photog.

Hi Cameron,

it is a great lens. I have it and have decided to use it more often

Here is my input:

#1

This is a good capture of the snow leopard. I would recommend you take the raw files and triple "expose" it. One for the foreground, middle and back. You can then blend these together so to make the leopard stand out more.

#2

I would reshoot, sorry. The foreground grass takes too much away from it.

#3

Looking at the exif, I see you had 400ISO. The D300 is capable of better then that. You can make your settings where you can set the minimum shutter speed and max ISO, so you can optimise the shutter speed. That's what I would have done. However, I quite like the capture you got. I would probably only darken the branch and the bright background at the right of the beak.

#4 is very well captured, probably would not change much there except maybe to try to have a lighter background to the left of the bird but that is being really picky.

Great captures Cameron, a bit of work on them will give you some great keepers,

cheers,

André

surenj wrote:#1 has relatively flat light on the cat. [nothing to do with the lens I guess] You could easily dodge and burn to make this look better.

radar wrote:#1 This is a good capture of the snow leopard. I would recommend you take the raw files and triple "expose" it. One for the foreground, middle and back. You can then blend these together so to make the leopard stand out more.

Thanks guys, I will have a play with this image and see what I get. Unfortunately the Leopard was in shade so there was never going to be much shadow and hence the flat light.

radar wrote:#2 I would reshoot, sorry. The foreground grass takes too much away from it.

surenj wrote:#2 I am undecided about the green stuff in front of the lion although it could grow on me.

I had mixed feelings about this one....but I thought I would put it up to see what you guys thought.

surenj wrote:#3 is the strongest with a neat composition.

radar wrote:#3 Looking at the exif, I see you had 400ISO. The D300 is capable of better then that. You can make your settings where you can set the minimum shutter speed and max ISO, so you can optimise the shutter speed. That's what I would have done. However, I quite like the capture you got. I would probably only darken the branch and the bright background at the right of the beak.

Thanks, Andre...does this mean you use Auto ISO + Aperture Priority??

radar wrote:#4 is very well captured, probably would not change much there except maybe to try to have a lighter background to the left of the bird but that is being really picky.

surenj wrote:#4 is a quirky compo which doesn't catch my eye.

Great to hear some differing opinions. I am not totally sure about the composition of this one either....thanks!!

aim54x wrote:Thanks, Andre...does this mean you use Auto ISO + Aperture Priority??

yep, that's the one. Set you min shutter speed you want and the max ISO and you are set to go. Works great.

Hey Cameron, great to see you got some good use outta the 300.

I reckon the first image is by far a standout, this guy is notoriously hard to get and is quite often there is only a fleeting tail to be seen in teh enclosure, the composition is great with only a few flaws that are pretty well outta your control (ie that blade of grass across its face)

since these are pretty well sooc I reckon just a bit of PP love and they will go a long way - the great thing about the 300mm lens is the beautiful contrast you get straight outta the bag hence you only need to touch the contrast to get it opo out. Given you are probably shooting most of these thru wire or plexiglass the retaining contrast is pretty good.

I can sit here all day and bang on about what PP should be done blah blah but the quickest and easiest way to show you what I would do is to post an example.

there is a bit of work on this one, using teh original jpeg or raw file would yield better results obvuoiusly. D-lighting (hi qual) to bring up some dark areas, local adjustment of the contrast levels to bring out detail of the subject (just using the mask brush), global contrast +10 or thereabouts. Local brightening of the eyes using u-points. some dodgy painting to remove teh effect of that grass blade on the nose and above the lhs eye - there are better ways to achieve this, however using teh colourise (select colour to the local area, for example the black of teh nose) option at 75% opacity and brushing the areas that lack the true colour and contrast due to the wire or grass balde. Clone out that twig in the BG and denoise the BG.

My two cent worth...
I would crop the the grass out in the first picture leaving
the eyes in the two thirds and then work on getting the
picture lighter like the re-work from biggerry.

I would also crop out part of the right side of the bird to
get a stronger composition leaving the eyes in the two
thirds. Square crop?

The third is good as it is, but I have no suggestion for the
big cat.

Cameron
Your image of the snow leopard is outstanding. I don't agree that it needs more contrast....in this case the softness suits the subject and adds a touch of mystery to the image. Your instincts were sound when you PPd this one. . It is one of the best images of this cat that I have seen for a long time. Well done. I think the trend to punch up the contrast and sharpness of many digital images leaves them looking a little 'fake'.

Matt. K wrote:Cameron
Your image of the snow leopard is outstanding. I don't agree that it needs more contrast....in this case the softness suits the subject and adds a touch of mystery to the image. Your instincts were sound when you PPd this one. . It is one of the best images of this cat that I have seen for a long time. Well done. I think the trend to punch up the contrast and sharpness of many digital images leaves them looking a little 'fake'.

Thanks Matt....I actually didnt do any PP on any of these images...they are straight out of camera. I know what you mean by the trend of bumping contrast/saturation/sharpness with digital images....it is pleasing but they can become very removed from reality.

That said I do like what Gerry has done with this image as well. It really has brought out the leopard nicely.....possibly too well due to the nature of the colour scheme that its fur coat was intended for. Thanks for sharing though Gerry, you have definitely made the image a standout.

zafra52 wrote:My two cent worth...
I would crop the the grass out in the first picture leaving
the eyes in the two thirds and then work on getting the
picture lighter like the re-work from biggerry.

I would also crop out part of the right side of the bird to
get a stronger composition leaving the eyes in the two
thirds. Square crop?

The third is good as it is, but I have no suggestion for the
big cat.

Some great suggestions as well...I guess I better get playing and posting!

I had a play with this image........


I quite like the dulled back look so I thought I would see if I can lift the image slightly by making a small change....What do you think?

aim54x wrote:I quite like the dulled back look so I thought I would see if I can lift the image slightly by making a small change....What do you think?

about half way between your version and teh original and i think that would be neat. The eyes look a bit too bright (impossible bright) against the dull remaining portions of the frame.

biggerry wrote:

aim54x wrote:I quite like the dulled back look so I thought I would see if I can lift the image slightly by making a small change....What do you think?

about half way between your version and teh original and i think that would be neat. The eyes look a bit too bright (impossible bright) against the dull remaining portions of the frame.

back to the file later....I was thinking about the extent to which I could push those eyes

Hey Cameron, your edit looks underexposed. Is the histogram ok on your side?

surenj wrote:Hey Cameron, your edit looks underexposed. Is the histogram ok on your side?

I didnt adjust the exposure at all...only lifted the eyes a little.....

With the amount of black in the background you are bound to get a massive spike on the LHS. I am a little shifted to the left, but overall a nice even curve (minus black spike). I did play with lifting the exposure but decided I prefer it this way.

 PS I am only about 10 days post calibration so I hope my screen has not drifted THAT much....

Thanks Cameron.

aim54x wrote: I hope my screen has not drifted THAT much....

Depends whether your screen is worthy of calibration. I know that some screens are not that improved after calibration.[my laptop is one of those] Also, this is more of a brightness issue rather than color.

surenj wrote:Thanks Cameron.

aim54x wrote: I hope my screen has not drifted THAT much....

Depends whether your screen is worthy of calibration. I know that some screens are not that improved after calibration.[my laptop is one of those] Also, this is more of a brightness issue rather than color.

Screen is fine....calibrates to be very, very similar to my calibrated laptop screen. I do both every 3-4 weeks and they always end up being almost identical. Calibration also affects brightness of the display, so a drifting display is also likely to display brightness differently.