I wish that we had 720px for this shot - I have cropped only for shape (to maximise the available pixels). There is so much detail in the original.
Taken at Chong Qing zoo, China. This is the youngest of their five pandas.
I used my 70-200 and 2x teleconverter at 380mm. Post to crop, then tried HDR (of which I have retained a small area near the nose which worked well), but otherwise used a single exposure from Rawshooter with increased contrast, then added a black & white channel mixer adjustment layer at 25% opacity. A bit of dodge and burn to darken corners and lighten the eye. Resized, sharpened at three different levels on different layers and blended these using masks to vary sharpening in different areas.
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nice composition. I think blurring the background a little would look nice. maybe more contrast. all the texture in the fur would make for a great b&w.
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