Outlined

This male cheetah was resting on top of a termite mound with the sun setting in the background, creating the amazing colours in this image. I was really hoping to get the last rays of sun light reflecting out of the cheetah’s eyes but he did not turn his head, so instead I used what I had to my advantage and tried to get rim lighting making the cheetah stand out.

Equipment used

• Camera - Canon 7D MKii
• Lens and Focal Length - Canon 100-400 MKii f4.5-5.6

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO - 250
• Aperture - f5.6
• Shutter Speed - 1/640

Editing used on this image

Shooting straight into the last rays of sun gave me what I needed, most which was the backlighting I just needed to make it stand out a bit more. I dropped the shadows and blacks as well as the exposure making the cheetah darker. I then lifted the highlights making the rim lighting outline the cheetah.