Cheetah

cw318is

cw318is

Messages
1,479
Name
Caleb
Edit My Images
Yes
Took this today at my first zoo trip of the year! Been trying for ages to get a Cheetah shot as normally she's looking the other way but after a bit of a wait in the cold she turned round and looked straight at me. Now what can I do to improve this shot? Tweaked levels and sharpened eyes and cropped a bit off the left side, but it doesn't have the impact I wanted it to. :help:

Ta.

5316241285_2f93083657_b.jpg
 
Caleb...this is a very nice photo. I see you allow editing...so I took the liberty of doing a couple of things in PSE 8 on my Mac. First I selected the background and applied some gaussian blur. The goal was to better isolate the big cat. Next I applied some directional lighting from the upper right corner to brighten and highlight the front of the cheetah in particular. Third, I blackened the pupils some and then added a bit of light in them. Finally, I cropped the image a little tighter and tried to mimic your frame. I toyed with adjusting the color curves...but opted for the softer lighting. It may be a bit too warm, though, considering the predator that is the focal point of your image.

If you don't like my edits, just say so, and I'll gladly delete the post.

Leopard.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thank you hunter, the background was the biggest thing in my mind, tried cloning out the slightly oof branches with the bokeh bracken but it didn't quite work for me. Gaussian blur looks to be the way, so I shall give it a go now. The eyes are pretty killing as well!

The only thing I'm not sure about is the revised lighting as I think it might have lost a bit of texture through OE - especially top of head, front right elbow and front right paw. Its loads better then my what I posted though and its given me loads to improve with.

Thanks again.
 
Oooooooooooooooooh.... OOOOOOOOOOOOOH... so gorgeous...


OHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Cheetahs are very special to me - that is a wonderful shot!



<edit: Hunter... wow, blurring the background etc is immense... so gonna have to figure out how to do all that stuff!>
 
Last edited:
Azure said:
Oooooooooooooooooh.... OOOOOOOOOOOOOH... so gorgeous...


OHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Cheetahs are very special to me - that is a wonderful shot!



<edit: Hunter... wow, blurring the background etc is immense... so gonna have to figure out how to do all that stuff!>
Click to expand...

Caleb and Azure...here's what I did to blur the background...Using Photoshop Elements 8:

1. I used the quick selection tool with a ten pixel brush (not sure that exact brush size is critical so long as you can carefully select the background.)
2. I selected the background following as close as I could to the contour of the cheetah to make sure I did't miss anything.
3. Next I went to the toolbar across the top to the select menu; from the drop down menu I chose Refine Edge with the following values: Smooth 3; Feather 2 px; and Contract/Expand -50. (The first two help blend the edge so there's no sharp transition. The third pulls your selection line back from the cat's profile. You want to do this so the blurring doesn't lose the little hairs along the back and ears, etc.
4. From the toolbar across the top I next chose Filter, then Blur from the drop down menu. Under Blur I selected Gaussian Blur at 4.0 pixels because it gave a nice bokeh that looked pretty natural to my eye.

And that's all there is to this. :LOL: This photo is a good candidate for this, though, because the rock platform in the foreground and the cheetah provide very precise divisions between background and foreground.

I'm no pro with PSE, so there could be a better way.
 
I actually prefer the original to the edit - it does however look a bit dark on my monitor. Maybe just lifting it a bit would bring out the impact you are looking for?
 
FWIW and I am definitely no expert - just a bystander, but I reallly am in two minds on this one.

The Gaussian Blur doesn't quite do it for me and I don't find the extra lighting complimentary, either.

I am sure that I could do no better although I have 'Played' with Image manipulation for years as a hobby.

The 1st has something about it that is lost in the 2nd edit but not sure quite what, as it too has blurring in the background.

I would be interested to see the original before making my mind up.


Great shot BTW.
 
Thanks for that.

Well for my money I much prefer the colouring.

The darker OOF backdrop looks a lot better.

How do you feel about cloning out the offending foreground branch to the left?

A closer crop will help also.(Cuts out some of the cloning, too)

It'll take time although I think this is all it needs BUT

I am hoping someone more expert will pass their view. Hunter Praps?
 
Last edited:
I'm pretty happy with this version;

5321023671_8d59e62af5_b.jpg


Using gaussian blur for the background as hunter said, but keeping the colours I set. The original photo was taken in not the best light at 400mm f5.6 so the colour was the main correction, then it was just composition, the background was what it needed to my eyes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top