Took this one WAY back in March of '09... who knows how it will do. You would think I would start to put fav's aside for the Best of challenges, but every year it's a mad dash to try to find something to enter.
Editing:
Brightness/contrast
Curves
Levels
Color Balance
USM
HPS
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Place: 235 out of 445 Avg (all users): 5.7805 Avg (commenters): 6.5263 Avg (participants): 5.7602 Avg (non-participants): 5.8600 Views since voting: 1290 Views during voting: 385 Votes: 246 Comments: 20 Favorites: 0
First reaction I had when I saw your photo was: "Wow, there's so much details on the fur, it's amazing!"
It's a shame that it place here it did, but anyway it was a 5.78 score, not too bad.
Lighting
Great use of natural lighting, the shadows are not distractive, and the subject is very well lit.
Composition
Although a crop at the top would bring the feline into a more central position, it would make it a square crop, and it might be too tight, I do think that you choose correctly in this manner.
Processing
As said already below, since it was an advanced edit challenge, some brightening / dodging could have been used on the eyes / face to make it a little bolder.
The sharpening is amazing and it's what really brings out the picture.
The problem with this scene is that you don't have that much contrast between the puma and the background; one choice could have been to slightly desaturate the background, so the subject would stand out more. Also lighting up the puma would detach it from the bg pretty well.
Overall, it's a photo that really makes an impression, and at 1/60 you had a very steady hand (or a very sturdy tripod :)
If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
nice capture , love the details, good technique. A little selective brightening/increase in contrast of both eyes (just a tad) will help give a little more punch in the shot and enhance the connection with the viewer, 7
Oh that thousand yard stare. Very very nice, great detail, eyes are a bit dark though, kinda makes the stare impact less than it otherwise would, you know? Great DOF.
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