Sibling bonding

Bijrani, Corbett National Park. December 2014. We kept hearing the mother's 'uuuuangh', hair raising in it's closeness. Rounding a bend, we cut the engine and waited with bated breath. In the golden mid morning light of a crisp winter day, the 1st sub adult tigress stepped out, settled down, soon to be joined by her sister. They rubbed their cheeks in sibling bonding and held us spelbound in their mesmerizing stare.

Shot with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 300 mm f 4 + TC 14E at 420mm, ISO 500, 1/500s - F/5.6

Lovely moment. It would have been a real pleasure watching it in the wild. The composition is nice. How much is the crop? Did you use noise reduction followed by sharpening? There are some sharpening artifacts. Or did you upload a large image and the software resized it? Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Thanks Sabyasachi, it was one of those sightings that one pinches oneself, after it's over. We saw 4 of Sharmili's cubs - 3 females & 1 male for over 15 mns with Sharmili calling to them loudly to come to her, but they were determined to explore and walked off in the opposite direction from her. Will be writing about the whole sighting shortly. By the way purely for my learning, how do you make it it's been noise reduced and then sharpened? I wan't to avoid such tell take signs of pp to improve my skills and hence the question. This is a 20% crop, with a bit of gaussian blur applied to the bg and the shrubs / vegetation on the right, then noise reduction and sharpening by unsharp mask - 0.4 and then noise reduction again. Have also opened up a bit of shadow on the tigress on the right...her flank and right part of foreleg and chest...

Kaustuv,
When I look at images, immediately it becomes apparent. The reason is earlier while photographing with two different digital cameras (one with APS-C ie. 1.6 crop sensor and one with APS-H ie. 1.3 crop) I used to always make the calculations as to which lens to use in which camera based on light/ possible aperture and depth of field. So any abrupt depth of field fall off becomes very clear.

In this case, while blurring the background, parts of the tiger (the one standing) on the right has been blurred (neck/shoulder). Some part of the lantana branch is clear and the other portion is blurred.

Also, you sharpen based on your screen. However, when I check with a different screen, it shows up.

In the past some people have challenged me to catch them. In such cases, I download the image to my comp and then analyse through software. I can see the signs. :) In normal course, I don't do it.

Lot of researchers worldwide ask for images to use in their official papers. I can't send them images that have been manipulated in software. By the way, all reputed news agencies like AP, reuters etc and reputed publications won't consider images that have been edited to blur, remove elements, crop etc. So better to show images without blurring, extensive noise reduction etc and show the habitat as it is. For example an article on lantana will like to use image of tiger and other animals in the lantana invaded corbett landscape without any blurring etc.

I just want to ensure that IndiaWilds is a sane source for all serious reference material.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
PS: I think the image you have clicked is much better than the one that is posted.

Educative indeed Sabyasachi....thanks for that. You're right in a lot of ways, that excessive pp 'reduces' the natural feel of the image. Since this discussion is happening will upload a closer to the natural shot I took for you to consider...

Here is the image with just a little bit of shadows opened up on the right tigress with none of the other pp work mentioned with the image previously uploaded....from an image perspective (and since I have not radically cloned out or blurred out any object that significantly alters / falsifies the natural moment, except for the lantana on the right), I still prefer the former for the way the tigresses and their eyes 'jump' out at you. However post doing this version do agree with Sabyasachi that the latter image is a more 'natural' feel of the moment captured.

Beautiful image.A rarely witnessed moment of bonding captured in the wild.Great eye contact and composition.Thanks for sharing.

Nice moment. well framed. like the compo and eye contact.

TFS
Roopak

Very nice image.... Nice eye contact.. Thanks for sharing

Lovely picture of the tigers, Kaustuv.... I suppose you visited Corbett just a day or 2 after I visited in Dec 2014, remembered from the CHE post where you mentioned the same. While I missed this great opportunity you certainly did bag it...Though I curse my luck I am happy that you got such a great sighting... beautiful affectionate moment displayed nicely here....thanks for sharing.

Thanks all. Anantharaman, bad that you missed it, but such is the luck of the jungle...This was the 1st time I saw tigers in Corbett and what a sighting it was....4 sub adults and their mother. Got another sighting of their mother separately 2 days later, and that was a charged, aggressive encounter. Saw another tigress crossing the vast grassland behind Dhikala too...these were in Bijrani...Yes, remember the shot you'd put of the juvenile CHE calling....have almost a similar kind of shot in the same spot...wonder why she was calling so insistently