Jaguar fix

[woundedmallard]

Hey Everybirdy,

While I usually don't mess with zoo animals too often, if at all, but I decided to try and make something of this jaguar.
It's a nice full frame head shot that I thought might be worth saving. Shot through a plexiglass window, in a pretty well shaded pen, ISO 400-1/125 sec at f/6.7 may not have been the most optimal setting.
Aside from boosting the exposure +1.60 in ACR with a slight bump on the brightness and saturation, I utilized a technique that I'm sure has a name. Can't recall if I picked it up here or elsewhere so my apologies to the originator. Sharpened the original, a good bump on the shadows/highlights, then duplicated layer, hit the noise filter>median at 3 or 4 pixels. Ran the eraser tool on the jaguar and merged.

Just having a little fun, but any constructive critique is appreciated of course.

Original:

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fix
View attachment 95483

 

[Gale]

Nice
Now just pull the blue cast out:>))

 

[MGlennn]

Very nice job....I'm with Gale on the cast :smile:

 

[woundedmallard]

I'm not all that good at fixing cast color yet, in fact I havent' messed with it at all. I just hit this in image>adjustments>color balance and drew down the blue in shadows and midtones.
Any better?

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[Gale]

Ya did good...
One of the ways to get rid of a cast is to use selective color and play with the sliders.
No special recipe:>))
Also hue/sat can help you out

There are several ways Tom...
So if you get a really tough one, post it and we can always try other ways as well:>))))

Actually your WB was prob off.
Did you shoot in raw:>)))))

 

[woundedmallard]

Thanks Gale. Yeah, shot it RAW, as always, I'm a permanent convert now since August '06.
I didn't want to go above 400 ISO but kept the shutterspeed a bit high and flash would have surely bounced off the plexi window. Appreciate your feedback.

 

[beaucamera]

Tom, I like your second version much better.
Do you remember what metering you used on this?

Virginia
aka beaucamera

 

[woundedmallard]

Tom, I like your second version much better.
Do you remember what metering you used on this?

Virginia
aka beaucamera

Thanks Virginia. I used matrix metering.