Zoo animal processing

Any thoughts on the processing here? I have plenty of space to crop differently on all sides except the bottom, would you have cropped differently? I think the body fur on the leopard's body is slightly blurred because there was a fence cable right there that I almost completely blurred out; any suggestions on how to fix that? Should I do anything about the noisy background (if so, anything besides selecting the background and blurring it out?)? Any comments in general? Its an Amur Leopard from the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.

Settings:

ISO 1600
f/4
1/200 sec
200mm

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/61875474@N06/6​984501658/

I think the overall noise in the image bothers me the most. Is there a particular reason you were shooting at ISO 1600? Why so high; looks like its an outdoor enclosure?

Maybe if you had taken a few steps to the left to get that pole either out of frame or further seperated from the leapord.

I guess you could mask out the leapord and blur the background but I don't thinkit would help the image. I would also crop to the pole, or a little bit into it.

rivas8409 wrote in post #14357945
I think the overall noise in the image bothers me the most. Is there a particular reason you were shooting at ISO 1600? Why so high; looks like its an outdoor enclosure?

Maybe if you had taken a few steps to the left to get that pole either out of frame or further seperated from the leapord.

I guess you could mask out the leapord and blur the background but I don't thinkit would help the image. I would also crop to the pole, or a little bit into it.

The enclosure is the high rock/concrete walls on three sides, the steel cables on the front, a thick vine coverage on top, and the front is heavily shaded. I lucked out with the leopard being up top where it was a little brighter.

Where I was standing was the only place where I could actually get the leopard. There's a horizontal pole right below where the bottom of the photo is cropped and I was standing on a bench to be high enough to not have it in.

Given the conditions as you describe them, I think this would go in my "impossible to get a shot" file. Poor lighting. Also, any manufactured item in a zoo shot (the pole) shouts HELD CAPTIVE, which goes against the sensibilities of many. Try visiting a zoo where they expend effort to provide a more natural environment for the critters.

joedlh wrote in post #14360249
Also, any manufactured item in a zoo shot (the pole) shouts HELD CAPTIVE, which goes against the sensibilities of many. Try visiting a zoo where they expend effort to provide a more natural environment for the critters.

That really isn't relevant to any of my questions at all. Thank you for lecturing me on your beliefs.

imsellingmyfoot wrote in post #14360818
That really isn't relevant to any of my questions at all. Thank you for lecturing me on your beliefs.

I wasn't going to repeat suggestions that others already made. And what makes you think that they're my beliefs? Show me an animal shot that has chains, bars, bricks, windows, concrete, etc., and that has broad popular appeal. It's a tough sell. Furthermore, I did introduce a concept that lots of budding photographers have trouble coming to terms with: sometimes a shot is so impossible that you just walk away. A corollary to that is, if you take the shot anyway, you don't go to heroic efforts to rescue it from its flaws. It never works.

Is f/4 the widest your lens would open?

rivas8409 wrote in post #14361972
Is f/4 the widest your lens would open?

Yes. I would love to be able to go to 2.8 but that's not in the budget.

I have to wonder if you'd have been able to drop the ISO to 800 and slow down the shutter to 1/100 or around there. Would have reduced the noise that's killing the shot for me.

I'd have to agree with what joe said. It seems as though the conditions weren't right the photo weren't right... You still took the shot, but it's very noisy and the post work you did (I'm assuming you did post work on it) created some bluish artifacts in the leopard's fur as well as gave it's nose a bluish tint. I'm thinking it was from a levels adjustment and possibly the sharpening.

It's a beautiful and pwerful cat, but the photo just doesn't capture that.

Where are you seeing the blue tint besides the nose? I haven't seen that on any of my monitors, I'll have to check that out.

I bet I could have done with the lower ISO, but I don't trust myself to handhold that slow.

I see it down from the animals right shoulder through it's right leg and into it's right side a bit. Also around the top of the head.

Regarding your handholding ability, if you need to use the IS on your lens, assuming your lends is equipped with it.