Subadult tigress,Ranthambhore

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

15th March 2008, late evening , Subadult tigress, Zone-4, Ranthambhore national park

LUMIX FZ-18 + TCON 17 Teleconvertor, f/4.2,1/400, iso 800, focal length 494x1.7= 840mm

[Bibhav Behera]

I like the eye contact and the image contrast somewhat appeals to me although you seen to have lost a bit of detail around the front leg. I also like the leaves in the image. Is this a crop? The image could have been a bit sharper.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dipankar,
I like the composition. Unfortunately, the leg is overexposed and has lost details. And the blacks in face, leg etc is too black and doesn't have any details. Please look at your original shot and you can revisit your post processing. Let me know if there are any difficulties.

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

Dear Sabhya da,
Focussing was a constant problem due to the grass around the tiger, i would have wished for a more sharp shot but the camera being a point and shoot combined with the fact that it was handheld while precariously balancing with 6 others on jeep may have contributed to the flaws.The light was also rapidly fading.
i am not to familiar with Photoshop, so i just increased the contrast of the picture, contributing to the loss of detail that you mention. i have another 80 pictures of the pair of tigers which i have to do post processing so a tip from you would be great.
Cheers
Dipankar

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dipankar,

I am more comfortable when someone calls me Sabyasachi. Personal preference

In Photoshop check the histogram. You will see that if the histogram is touching the left then some portions of the image is underexposed and has lost details. If the histogram is touching the right, then some portions of the image has become overexposed and lost details in those areas. So better that the image remains inbetween around the centre.

Too often images are ruined when you increase the contrast. To start with try to click images that have histograms at the centre. For converting the images, follow the steps given below:

In Photoshop
- go to IMAGE... MODE and make sure it is sRGB color
- go to IMAGE... IMAGE SIZE
- make sure that the CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS and RESAMPLE IMAGE boxes are both ticked
- change RESOLUTION field to 120 pixels/inch (dpi)
- change WIDTH or HEIGHT field (whichever is larger) to 800 pixels (important you do it in this order otherwise the width and height will change)
- go to FILTER... SHARPEN... SHARPEN (this will make the image clearer - only do this once!)
- go to FILE... SAVE (don't use SAVE FOR WEB if you have IPTC info in your image as you may lose it)
- change SAVE AS field to JPEG
- change directory to where you want to save your jpeg and click SAVE
- when the JPEG OPTIONS box appears, change QUALITY field to about 70% or so (you can see which option gives you below 200kb)
- click OK

The best images are made in the camera. Try to get it right. Post processing should be minimal to correct the colour, contrast, white balance, levels etc.