Photo by Michael Schulte
Graceful and reserved big cat
Anyone who has ever been on a safari and in search of a leopard knows how much patience you need and how lucky you are when the great moment arrives. The beautiful big cat has made itself comfortable in a tree. As a photographer, you aim at your long-awaited target from a distance that offers safety on the one hand and imposes a need for a long focal length on the other. Every wrong move, every noise, every approach to the subject can softly ruin the scene. You can’t help but try to breathe calmly and press the shutter button.
This photo was taken in Tanzania, December 2024, when I was lucky enough to see 2 specimens of this beautiful animal in just a few days. The lighting conditions were anything but ideal with this one: backlighting, the big cat appeared almost like a silhouette, the sky looked white and empty.
Post processing notes:
Working with ON1 Photo RAW 2025, I made the following adjustments to get to this result and version of the original image: 1. General Adjustments in the Develop tab - Tone & Color - mid tones slightly raised, blacks lowered, a slight temperature adjustment 2. Local adjustments: a + 0.35 shift of exposure for the cat, minimal tweak of midtones (+1) and some contrast (+3), for the tree the exposure has even been lowered to even out the initial differences in lighting. 3. Effects: a decent dynamic contrast boost for the leopard and an additional progressive sharpening. A soft vignette for the image at the end. 4. I do not perform sky replacements very often. Most of the times I try to get the best result of what is in the original image. With this version I overcame my concerns and played with the phenomenal Sky Swap AI tool. The sky isn't replaced completely, it's a kind of overlay with a reduced opacity (68 % to be precise). See the result and make up your own mind.Exif information:
| Copyright: | © 2024 Michael Schulte |
| Camera: | NIKON D750 |
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Focal Length: | 400mm |
| ISO: | 640 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/1600 sec. |
| Created: | December 22, 2024 00:11:34 |