Snow Leopard...

[Kevan_G9]

Last weekend I went into the wilds of the Bronx and as luck would have it ,I found this cool cat more than willing to sit still and say, "Cheese!"

So I posted this photo on the Canon Digital Photography Forum and asked the folk for their C&C. Here are some outtakes of their comments:

"Looks nice,,, as far as tips go... pay attention to your histogram it looks as though you overexposed on the neckline which unfortunately keeps drawing my eyes away from the face. But it's pretty insignificant and could easily be fixed in photoshop."

"Looks like a bit of fill flash would've helped." (There was a plate of glass between the camera and cat so this wasn't a viable option.)

"If you took it raw you might be able to HDR it and get the detail into the washed out part of the coat."

"Finally, post-processing needn't be extensive nor elaborate. Some sharpening, a slight contrast adjustment, and any color/white balance correction is all it really takes. Layers aren't a "feature", but a tool used to accomplish the above. "Adjustment" layers allow you to work on the photo without altering the original, so that each modification is tunable via the opacity slider and it's original controls (i.e. curves, levels)."

A complete listing of the thread, including the picture, can be found at: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=439508

So here's the photo in question. I could use some keystroke education as to what you would do with a photo such as this'n. Thanks in advance for your comments.

[NMarti]

Kevan
That's a beauty. I love snow leopards and it is rare to find them out and about and allowing photos. I shot some a Big Cat Rescue in Florida and the owner told me I was extremely lucky to get the shots as they rarely come out of their den when people are around. The ones at the St. Louis zoo where I go frequently are also very elusive. I have only one shot of them in about 30 trips.

[Edmund]

Kevan , First of all I would have shot this in RAW. I am not familiar with the Cannon G9 but from just looking at the image I can see that you need to adjust the white balence and exposure. I see that in the other forum you permitted forum members to play with your file so if want a few of us to do it say so. There is also too much distracting scenery around the Beautiful cat so I would crop most of it away and try for a good composition of mainly the head , maybe even a verticle layout. If you want I'll give it a try.:)
Eddie

PS welcome to the best forum around.

[Kevan_G9]

Thank you for your comments. I certainly would welcome other folks attempts at editing this photo. But please include the steps you took to get where you went.

I have a long steep climb ahead of me learning the in's and out's of both my camera and PSE6, so I'm opening myself to C&C so that I might learn.

Call me grasshopper.

P.S. I ended up taking this shot using a "sport" auto function and I think the camera (or I) disabled the ability for creating a RAW file. I did at one point format the camera to take both lpeg and raw at the same time. Scratch this as "learning curve".

[Joe M]

I think it's a great photo. Like most, it needs a little post processing.

Here is my attempt at processing.

I used camera raw to make several minor adjustments. I opened it in Photoshop and made 2 changes. I cropped it and used the Dodge tool on they eyes.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1cae5HzFoD2ft6JAJNicgxgeSJZuj_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1cae5HzFoD2ft6JAJNicgxgeSJZuj)

[cats4jan]

Personally, I like the original as is. I like the softness of it and I like the background surrounding him.

It's hard to get a decent photo through glass, I think you did well to get as good a photo as you did.

[Joe M]

Personally, I like the original as is. I like the softness of it and I like the background surrounding him.

It's hard to get a decent photo through glass, I think you did well to get as good a photo as you did.

I have a lot to learn about photography. But I've never taken a digital photo that couldn't benefit from processing.

[cats4jan]

But I've never taken a digital photo that couldn't benefit from processing.

I do love the ability to "fool" with photos - but, sometimes I'm just content to let the shot speak for itself.

[ufauxreal]

I had a go at your image. I cropped it into a vertical, then I went to enhance->Lighting->highlights and shadows, and darkened the highlights, which brought a lot more detail into the white portion of his fur. I then used the burn tool to tone down the background. Last, I used unsharp mask (maybe a bit too much!!).

Joan

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Ihgg2g8gJB1bmWsKa6p4Qwd2AZS0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Ihgg2g8gJB1bmWsKa6p4Qwd2AZS0)

[Edmund]

Kevan, Here is my quick shot at editing the snow cat. I used Lightroom and essentially adjusted the white balence ever so slightly to warm it up a little. Then I reduced exposure by I believe a stop, added some recovery (for the highlights) and increased the saturation and contrast then added a frame in PSE-4.
Eddie:)

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1yqcUMq60RZY36K5q5eO31pkBtMcUA1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1yqcUMq60RZY36K5q5eO31pkBtMcUA1)