Tiger Closeup

[Kiran Ghadge]

Taken from Elephant back in tiger show. he was so close that at 400mm you can get only this

Canon 50d + 100-400mm
1/125 at F 5.6 an ISO 400

[AB Apana]

An interesting image Kiran. Try cropping out the empty space on the left and see if it strengthens the image.

It also seems a bit soft, and perhaps needs a bit more pop.

Apana

[Rahul Parekh]

in thumbnail it looks like famous siberian tiger images beautiful capture.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Kiran,
The head looks big.

I agree that a bit of sharpening and tighter framing would strengthen it.

It is a tough task to get critical sharpness from elephant back, especially at 1/125th of second when you are using 400mm on a 1.6 crop camera. The elephants move a lot. There appears to be little bit of movement during capture.

In bandhavgarh, try bracing your arm on the rod and click. The elephants will keep on moving, it is like a boat. So try predicting the movement and at the peak it will stop and move back. Click during that time as there is a fraction of a second when the elephant stops. Also, ask the mahout to keep the elephant still.


Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Ranbir Mahapatra]

After studying this image I think the one captured by Kiran works best in the given situation. BTW, I am assuming its a full crop. The green on top left corner might be distracting, but not so much. The softness of the image works well to convey a sense of "in the scene with the King" kind of feeling. A sharp image might have made this image pedestrian.

Personally I feel this fetish for "sharp" image sometimes deters photographers to experiment.

What about a tighter framing? Lets assume Kiran had shifted a bit towards the right, the image might have included a bit of the tiger's torso. With a 5.6 it might have looked a orange black blur perhaps. I am wondering whether using a f8 would have helped here?

Moving on; I get a sense of the bulkiness of the tiger by the white fur on the head. Including more of the body in the right, might have diminished that impact. Hence this crop works best.

Overall this is a nice capture. Kudos to Kiran for that.

I know the eyes of the tiger are supposed to be oracular, but I am also bewitched by the lips of the tiger! The slightly twisted lower black lips (reminds me of hellish coal black of a Black Mamba!)and the just visible canines do accentuate the legend of the wild tiger.

This image aptly communicates to the viewer about the controlled power, shrewdness & aggression of the tiger; which is in contrast to a lot of other images by other photographers which makes the tiger more resemble the cuddly, benevolent "Tigger" from Winnie the Pooh.