Getting on for dusk, I'm working evening events at the zoo :-), I got this shot of a cheetah.
Critique on any aspect welcome, particularly the PP I'll put an after and before up.





f4.5
1/180
iso 800
200mm
tripod

Regal looking cat.

The image is muddy to my taste and could be richer. I'd try several things, like burning the green grass behind the animal a bit and seeing what you get from somewhat more saturation. If these thoughts appeal, show us what you get.

here's a quick stab at some post processing on this

If you're shooting at dusk on a tripod, possibly changing to a longer exposure than 1/180? The original is underexposed.

If I had to guess on the PP, I would say you boosted the exposure uniformly over the entire photo (EDIT: Nope- that's not what you did. But do let us know what you did). I gave it a go and I'll post what I came up with below (let's see if I can remember what I tried...).

in camera raw (use file "open as" then select the file and choose files of type "camera raw)- boosted the greens, boosted the blacks, boosted "clarity" and "vibrance" sliders

in photoshop - used levels to adjust the white point a little, dodged the eyes a bit to brighten them, adjusted the red/yellow in color balance to bring back the color of the cheetah. I think that's pretty much it.

I'd recommend shooting in RAW to get the flexibility of adjusting exposure/white balance in camera raw. It will be much better than what I get opening your jpeg in camera raw (although it's still a handy tool).

The other thing I would try next time you're out is setting auto exposure bracketing. Once you enable this on your camera, you can hold the shutter down and it will click the 3 exposures in succession. It will give you sort of a safety net for obtaining a well exposed one out of the three (and the possibility of blending the exposures if needed in PP).

@papageno, I see that now, thanks, another step taken.

lemurofdoom wrote:
all this while keeping detail in the cheetah's light chin fur.


I'm wondering where you found that detail, let alone kept it!
I'm struggling. Any pointers?

@zatomic, I'll definitely be setting the exposure bracketing in future (reaches for the handbook :-))
I'm new to tripods, having just got one for the first time so uncertain of what shutter speeds are practical for what lens/subject.
I do shoot raw, but hadn't taken full advantage of all the available options. lesson learned.
Ah, the new joy(to me) of levels, very, very helpful.

As I remember it, I upped saturation and exposure in raw, probably tweaked a little here and there, then into photoshop, most adjustment then done in curves. final tweaking to selectively sharpen/lighten eyes, and reduce noise in background.

Thanks to all of you for being so damn helpful and friendly!

Here's another take, but goddamn that chin fur detail.........



Edit: Just got cs4, i now understand most of what has been said :-) Previously on cs, quite a jump!

Some good work by lemurofdoom and zatonik.

Silvawispa,
Your new processing is quite an improvement over the original. But it looks too saturated to me.
Use the highlight recovery feature to pull back some detail in the chin, or mask some of your levels adjustment over the chin area.
BTW, your image could actually convert to a nice BW as well. But the soft grasses in the foreground seem to be less problematic in color.

Scott

I like the sbeme b/w much better. It de-emphasizes the grass in the foreground.

Cheers Scott(sbeme) I think I had my shades on doing that PP!
The info is just what I was looking for.
I love your bw conversion.
Thanks. Silver.