Tiger Cub (Female) - Chasing Antelope

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Shot this recently at Ranthambore NP Zone 1, considered to be very dense. We were fortunate to sight 3 tigers during the morning safari, mother, cubs male and female. The image posted is of the female cub that gave a good 40-50 mts chase to the Antelope, unfortunately she could not make the kill.The image is shot in motion hence could not achieve the required quality and clarity.
If you have any suggestions for improving the quality of the image it will be of great help.

Camera Model Name Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Date/Time 10/17/2009 8:20:22 AM
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/100
Av (Aperture Value) 5.0
ISO Speed 800

[Bibhav Behera]

The image gives a feel of panning. A good attempt at that. The composition looks fine.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Quite difficult conidtions to photograph. The shutter speed was quite less, you could have tried panning.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Mrudul/Bibhav can one of you let me know steps for panning, thanks in advance

[Bibhav Behera]

Panning is a simple technique (technically speaking), yet difficult to master. In panning, one ideally uses a slow shutter speed and moves the camera (as one presses the shutter button) in the direction of the moving subject (ideally at the same speed, to maintain the subject sharp). You can view this article
and subsequent discussions by Sabyasachi which explain the technique in detail... http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Praveen,
It is great to have witnessed such a scene. Not every attempt results in a kill. Tiger doesn't chase and hunt down its prey. It keeps on focussing and refocussing its attention on its possible prey and chooses its approach. When a deer, sambar, langur etc sees the stalking tiger and vents to an alarm call, the tiger discards its approach as it knows that any further stalking is futile. Only when the tiger comes close enough, it launches into its lightening charge. However, adolescents are yet to master the difficult art of hunting and hence resort to chasing their prey. Naturally, they are not successful.

In this case and in all cases where the animal is running or is in motion, one needs to decide whether to freeze the animal in the frame or go for panning. If your shutter speed is high, then it becomes easier to freeze and get a sharp image of the animal. Else, better to try panning. In this case, your ISO was 800. So shutter speed was 1/100. It was neither low to be panning nor high to freeze the frame. ISO 200 at f5.6 would have given you about 1/25th of second. Focus locked on the tiger and then moving the camera towards right in the direction of the motion would have given you a nice panning effect. If the tiger would have been bounding ie. the speed would have been greater, then 1/100th of second would have been good for panning.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi