Howard Frank
April 2026 - cheetahs feeding
About the Image(s)
I made this image at Samburu in Kenya on my recent photo safari. Mom was dragging her kill to hide in the trees and two of her three cubs were anxious to dig in. Taken with my Nikon Z 9 and 100 to 400 lens at f/5.6, ISO 1400 and 1/2000 sec. Processed with Lightroom and Nik Photo Studio.
Howard
1 comment posted
(Groups 2 & 3)
The scene is very appealing, and I suspect that your original lighting would have been just fine. As it is, your processing shows badly in the missed bit of BG between the adult cheetah's legs, and the poor selection around the adult's head and that of the second cub. While you can get by with a little bit of BG darkening, here a clean selection is almost impossible, which results in highly questionable alterations. There is also a weird appearance of the hind quarters of the left cub, and an odd drop-off in the BG bokeh.
Once something about the processing attracts a judge's eye, it often triggers a discussion that can result in requesting the original RAW file, and ultimately wind up with an ethics inquiry. Just FYI - less is more when processing ND images.
Lillian Posted: 04/13/2026 09:23:20
Once something about the processing attracts a judge's eye, it often triggers a discussion that can result in requesting the original RAW file, and ultimately wind up with an ethics inquiry. Just FYI - less is more when processing ND images.
Lillian Posted: 04/13/2026 09:23:20