Treed Leopard - C&C welcome

[davidedric]

I'm really quite pleased with this, but I am sure it could be improved. Maybe by cloning out some of the twigs behind the head? How would you do that (preferably without using layers), or any other suggestions.

Thanks for viewing.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dave,

I agree there is a lot of sharp and contrasty twigs just above his/her head and back.

Normally/previously I would suggest cloning in Elements or Photoshop for this, but having seen what an expert can do with the healing tools in ACR, I suspect you can have a go at this in LR5.0 (which I see from the EXIF is what you have).

I'd suggest not removing them all entirely, just separating them from the Leopard, to avoid issues where they cross that blurred background branch above the cat.

Unfortunately, although I know it can be done (I was looking at ACR 8 for Photoshop CC), I haven't tried it myself yet, partly because I have Photoshop so don't really need to learn another way to do something. You might try blurring the ones above the back instead of removal, or a combination. It'll take time, especially as you'd be learning as you go, but I'm sure it is do-able with what you have.

I have recently started at Lynda.com and would recommend giving it a go for $25/£16-ish per month (one month contract) if you want to learn what's possible quickly. I have no connection with them other than being a paying and satisfied customer, only downside so far identified is that sometimes lessons can take a little while (say 30s) to load, but that could be my ISP at fault.

Great capture btw

Hope that helps,

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks to the even color of the sky, the quickest way to eliminate some twigs is to paint them using the same color as the sky.

By the way, Lightroom Version 5 greatly improved its cloning tool and Version 5.2 improved it even more.

[Kaye Leggett]

Its a great shot and I understand completely the problem having just experienced it myself - if only the Leopard would sit somewhere better ! Mike's suggestion is a good one although I'go sparingly as you don't want to lose the naturalness of the photo and the fact that Leopards do in fact like trees like this.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful image... Mike's suggestion sounds perfect.

[Wavelength]

Wow

[rpcrowe]

Great capture! How about a closer crop on the big cat to somewhat eliminate the tree limb, twig and blank sky problems. I also bumped up the contrast, the structure and the saturation to make the cat stand out. I tried darkening the sky but it looked artificial; adding some blue to the sky also looked phony...



I think that a frame would also make the cat stand out. Of course, I am partial to frames...

[davidedric]

Thanks everyone, I'll give these ideas a try. For the painting, I think I'll have to go to PSE, but I will also try first with the new brush in LR (my first attempt wan't too successful - mus try harder).

Kaye - I'd forgotten about your trip to Tanzania, so I had a look at your pictures which were posted whilst we were away. Love the shot of the leopard with the sun on his face - good to see one fairly low down, too.

[Kaye Leggett]

Thanks Dave. I can't believe how long it is taking to go through all the images - keep me quiet for the winter. Hope you had a good time, looking forward to seeing a few more of your shots.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks Dave. I can't believe how long it is taking to go through all the images - keep me quiet for the winter.

I can certainly believe it. In fact, I have images that I never post processed from my 2010 trip to China and this year's trip to Europe and Turkey. Then, there are some which I have "rediscovered" using NIK Software...