# How would you fix this RAW of 2 baby snow leopards



## MaxPower (Mar 18, 2013)

This photo I took last week in cologne zoo, but the flash and the windows of the snow leopard compound were a really bad combo. So how would you fix this photo, below you find a link to the RAW file. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghw2296zm6watcq/2013-03-13%20um%2012-26-45.CR2

I will post my own work later on.


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## Renegade Runner (Mar 18, 2013)

I honestly can't remember what I just did. It was done fast and under 10 seconds. Lowered exposure, raised contrast and raised clarity in Photoshop. Nothing major. I am interested to see what others will do.


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## lol (Mar 18, 2013)

When I saw the original description I was fearing glare or worse, but this is a nice shot.

Here's my attempt... processed in DxO. Slight nudge to WB to warm it a little. Applied "Strong" DxO lighting which squishes it down, then turned up the general and micro-contrast. Upped vibrancy and saturation to bring out the colours (perhaps a shade too much?) and a touch of reduction in shadows to boost the perceived contrast a little more. If I were to spend more time on it, I think I'd make it a little brighter still.

Oh, with hindsight, I'd crop a little off the top too, to get rid of that dark bit.


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## jsexton (Mar 18, 2013)

DPP, adjusted white balance and exposure, upped vibrance and contrast a bit, adjusted layers and cropped a small part. Gorgeous animals.


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## bran8 (Mar 18, 2013)

Lightroom 4


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## bseitz234 (Mar 18, 2013)

LR4, upped contrast and clarity, a bit of sharpening, and desaturated (for no particular reason, I just found it more pleasing that way.) I think that's all I did...


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## SBeck (Mar 18, 2013)

Everyone sees color differently.


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## iMagic (Mar 18, 2013)

OK, my attempt


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## marcel (Mar 19, 2013)

Open with Photoshop CS5, and in Adobe Camera Raw select "Auto", works perfect.


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## lehre (Mar 19, 2013)

I did a tight crop. and THINK i like the color one best. but dont rly know. Lightroom 4 Lighten the eye a bit. Higher exposure, Highlights recovered (after pushing exposure), a little too much clarity (forgot to turn it back down after exporting B/W version), strong contrast curve, some HSL, and Portrait camera calibration. 

(btw Love bran8's Version)


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## risc32 (Mar 19, 2013)

sitting here working on some work shots, had to give it a quick go...


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## lion rock (Mar 19, 2013)

My rendition.


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## gary samples (Mar 19, 2013)

photo shop 6 here's my fix


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## JBeckwith (Mar 19, 2013)

LR4 Auto tone, + clarity, + vibrance.

Didn't want to go overkill on it since it wasn't really that bad SOOC.


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## Bruce Photography (Mar 19, 2013)

This is pretty much my standard processing technique. I feel that I couldn't do much with it having not seen the animal. I'll be very interested to see the posters treatment. I use Camera Raw processing mostly with just levels (didn't need much). Your 100-400 looks like a very sharp copy. Wonderful animals. I used his wiskers for my white balance.


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## DanThePhotoMan (Mar 19, 2013)

I'm a huge fan of eyes that pop, so I did a little saturation adjustment for him. But yeah, basically the same as everyone else: upped contrast and clarity, and vuala!


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## Dylan777 (Mar 19, 2013)

With my ave Joe's PP skill in LR4 - 7mins of work ;D


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## lostfeliz (Mar 19, 2013)

Give it a whirl in LR4.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wytd9qbilezmmpq/20130313_2013-03-13%20um%2012-26-45.jpg


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## Roger Jones (Mar 19, 2013)

silver efx


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## PTT (Mar 19, 2013)

I felt a portrait crop of the head resulted in a strong photograph. Removed twigs and other distractions around the right and bottom edges. Brightened and sharpened the eye. Set white balance off the whiskers. Camera RAW first then clean-up in Photoshop. A fun few minutes.


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## BrandonKing96 (Mar 19, 2013)

This is done with Photoshop CS5  and just resized in an application called Photoscape.
The colours on my laptop are a bit wonky, so I hope that this came out fine. MIght be a tad too bright.


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## cosminelfloricel (Mar 19, 2013)

This is mi take, but just standard processing. Some contrast, sharpness, and some color fixing


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## saizo (Mar 19, 2013)

ACR https://www.dropbox.com/s/0y03dn5j542fxyf/2013-03-13%20um%2012-26-45.xmp

CS6 only to remove twig to the heart


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## mdmphoto (Mar 19, 2013)

First two in Lightroom 4: Custom WB from foreground snow: exposure, clarity shadows, contrast: adj brush clarity, saturation, to big cat; desaturated background snow. Cropped one.

Second two CS5 RAW: Custom WB off snow in foreground
Exp .33 rec. 28 Blacks 55 brightness 30 contrast 46 clarity 35 vibrance 10 saturation -6, adj brush clarity exp brightness to eye. Cropped one.


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## NotABunny (Mar 19, 2013)

bran8 said:


> Lightroom 4



Brilliant! I don't understand why most are trying to warm it up. It's unnatural.

I'm surprised by how bad the noise looks at ISO 400, even with LR 4. I guess it's the sharpening (lots of clarity perhaps?!).


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## ecka (Mar 19, 2013)

LR4


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## propellerhead (Mar 19, 2013)

Hi!

Here's my take:






All The Best!
Leszek


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## J.R. (Mar 19, 2013)

Interesting to see how everyone's edits are so different. Here are mine - worked on them approximately 5-7 mins.


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## Harv (Mar 19, 2013)

I also felt this image lent itself to a portrait crop. When I cropped it in DPP, I also eliminated all in-camera sharpening as well as some color correction using 'click white balance' on the whiskers as others have done.

I moved the file into CS4 where I cloned out some distracting elements in the lower right of the frame, followed by re-sizing. I then adjusted the highlight and mid-tone contrast, increasing them slightly. I sharpened the image in Lab Mode to avoid artifacts and halos.

Here is the result...


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## Canon-F1 (Mar 19, 2013)

imho all the warm toning destroys the mood.


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## mdmphoto (Mar 19, 2013)

NotABunny said:


> bran8 said:
> 
> 
> > Lightroom 4
> ...



Are we looking for mood, natural accuracy, or some combination thereof? 

http://www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick/Animals/Mammals/Snow-Leopards.aspx
"As you can see (above), snow leopards aren't the color of snow. They're colored like the rock habitat they live in"
Indeed, the source RAW file shows quite a bit of color that I daresay seems naturally accurate. IMHO it is more challenging to excite the sensuous aesthetic via a favorable presentation of the real - and for me that much more satisfying on the rare occasion that I have accomplished same. Please don't get me wrong; I am also wildly in favor of stylized interpretation, though I don't find it as challenging a concept. All I'm saying is let's be clear on goals before we decide to critique each other's approach to the challenge.... ;D


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## iMagic (Mar 19, 2013)

IMHO the WB is off slightly and the natural color of the animal should be warmed up to be accurate. Not that I disagree with artistic license. I just prefer the animal to be rendered more realistically in this case. Also, I do like both the close up crop and the wider crop versions. I think it looks good both ways. 

I find it interesting to see everyone's personal take on things and it is evident that tastes vary so enjoy the variety!


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## jocau (Mar 19, 2013)

It was actually quite easy & fast. Not much editing either. Wanted to keep a rather natural look and thus nothing fancy. I performed 3 steps:

1) Changed the White Balance
2) Used Curves
3) Applied Unsharp Mask

And if you count in resizing the image, then I performed 4 steps...


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## MaxPower (Mar 19, 2013)

Bruce Photography said:


> Your 100-400 looks like a very sharp copy.


Indeed.

Im very happy with it.

I really like iMagics attempt, but the more cropped portrait versions are also very nice.
Here is my own work I do with Aperture 3


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## xrs74 (Mar 19, 2013)

Here's mine. Lightroom adjustments only. 8)


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## sandymandy (Mar 19, 2013)

my try...sleepy


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## NotABunny (Mar 19, 2013)

Great shot! I've used lots of tools from LR, 30 minutes tops. (The most annoying thing is that it doesn't have blacks and whites from brushes because you have to be really careful with the global blacks and whites.)


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## NotABunny (Mar 19, 2013)

mdmphoto said:


> NotABunny said:
> 
> 
> > bran8 said:
> ...



Thank you for the info.

Considering that this photo isn't specifically made for color accuracy, feeling is what matters to me.

I had no idea what color their fur is in general. What felt wrong to me was the color of the snow (and the dark upper part). I haven't touched the white balance in my try (except for the eye). These snow leopards appear to be whiter than those from your link.

No matter what their color is, I expect snow to be slightly bluish, as the photo actually shows it, especially at high altitudes, and especially considering that the sun doesn't appear to have been strong in the photo. For example, in the first photo from your link, both the sky and the snow are slightly bluish.

Only now I've read that a flash was used and the photo was made at a zoo. It's possible that the blue light of the flash changed the color balance (which may explain why the fur is so white relative to the snow).


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## @!ex (Mar 19, 2013)

Possibly as Anrzej Dragan might have edited it? Going more for drama and feeling, and less for color accuracy ect as many of the others are squabbling over above...


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## helpful (Mar 19, 2013)

bran8 said:


> Lightroom 4



My favorite--good job.


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## MaxPower (Mar 20, 2013)

Really nice to see what have done with my file.
Therefore, I can not resist to share another RAW.
I took last year with my 6D.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1qxoeriuaway839/2012-12-08%20um%2014-05-55.CR2


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## ecka (Mar 20, 2013)

LR4


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## MaxPower (Mar 20, 2013)

iMagic said:


> MaxPower, I get a decoding error on the latest RAW you made available.



Here another file for testing, if you still get an error I suppose your software don't support the EOS 6D.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1n9hehqdz129yjr/2012-12-08%20um%2014-07-56.CR2


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## iMagic (Mar 20, 2013)

MaxPower said:


> iMagic said:
> 
> 
> > MaxPower, I get a decoding error on the latest RAW you made available.
> ...



Sorry my mistake. I was using an old computer with an outdated DPP. Thanks. Will look at your photo later


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## ecka (Mar 20, 2013)

LR4


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## gary samples (Mar 20, 2013)

photoshop 6 my fast 5min fix


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## iMagic (Mar 21, 2013)

OK I wanted to highlight the leopard in this one.


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## Rockets95 (Mar 21, 2013)

My attempt (after posting, I think it looks over sharpened).


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## Dylan777 (Mar 21, 2013)

ecka said:


> LR4



awesome...LR4 as well


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## tmsprts (Mar 23, 2013)

90% of hockey action is thru glass. Best fix is curves ( white & black clip in CS6 ) then use high pass to sharpen, then some dodge and burn for localized contrast adjustment! No color adjust, it is what it is... Wicked Shot BTW!!


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