Royalty in B&W

[Rachel Hollander]

This is one of the 2 male brothers that rose to dominance this year in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa.

Canon 7D
100-400 @ 235mm
1/500
f6.3
ISO 800
HH from safari vehicle, cropped for comp, cloned some grass across the face, levels, curves, selective burning and dodging, midtone contrast, converted and sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel


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[Sid Garige]

Excellent B&W conversion Rachel. image very well conveys calmness of apex hunter.

[Grady Weed]

The image has a lot going for it Rachel. I love the tones and hues along the mane, the crown, from the nose back to the ears, also the under chin area has lots of varied tones too. You capturd the winds direction too, you can tell from the manes flowing back to the body and grasses swaying backwards. Well done there. What minor cloning you did is not visible, so good there too. I noticed the left eye, his lsft, and our right side, is a little closed, while the right side eye is wide open. It would have been nice to catch a slight head turn more to camera to off set that, but under the circumstance...goos as good can get. A very minor point on that one. His eyes have nice color, even thought it is in B&W, which helps keep my interest. I like it. TFS.

[gail bisson]

Hi Rachel,
I like this very much.
Good conversion to black and white.
I would dodge or tone down the diagonal twigs in RUC above the lions head.
I find my eye gets pulled away a bit.
Other than that, this is a beautiful, soulful shot,
Gail
PS How many pictures did you take on your trip? I took 7128!! And now plan on culling down to 300-400 over the dark winter months.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Great detail Rachel. Who says the 100-400 isn't a great lens! The composition and conversion are perfect.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sid, Grady, Gail and Sanjeev. I'm glad you like this one. Gail - I'll take a look at the twigs again. I took somewhere between 9,000-10,000 shots in 20 days in Africa. These days I tend to fire off multiple shots with the expectation that one may be sharper, have a better expression, eye contact, etc. I'm sure I'll still be processing and culling for a while.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, great to see you 'pushing the envelop' and trying different aspects to convey your images.

I wonder if it would help if you had a bit more image below? The tech's look good and you have the clarity, detail & sharpness there and nicely processed. I do think the blacks are heavy and there is more detail in the eye/surround, plus in the nose, so look to opening those up on the raw. I think you could selectively bring up the whites a bit more just for contrast IMHO, Just with % layers you can just brush in the lighter darker parts to, as I say. 'sculpt the form'. :w3

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks for the suggestions Steve, much appreciated.

[Anette Mossbacher]

The Royalty looks fantastic Rachel. For myself I would have placed his head a bit more to the right, but that is just me :bg3:
B&W looks great to me

Have a great start into the week.

Ciao
Anette

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Rachel,
I like the conversion and some good advice above on some tweaks. I really enjoy the eyes visible through the grasses the most.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Anette and Roman :wave:

[Jamie Douglas]

Great looking image Rachel and if you have the space below then I think you should add it.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jamie, I should have said no more room below.

[peter delaney]

Hi Rachel

Lovely image, nice conversion... most points have been covered ... only suggestion I would make is to whiten /lighten the whites under eyes, chin, whites in mane/face.
I would darken the blacks on eyes,lips/mane/face just to give it more of a tonal range and contrast .

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Peter, much appreciated.

[Morkel Erasmus]

nicely done Rachel for all the points mentioned - my first thought was voiced by Peter: it needs brighter whites on the lion...:w3

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone. Here's a repost attempting to incorporate most of the suggestions. I don't have any additional room below. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

has a lot more "pop" IMHO... :5