A bit grumpy!

[Anette Mossbacher]

Lion in Etosha walking down the hill, again. Like my last B&W from a few weeks ago. Same spot, same male. This time I straightened the image right away. This is FF!
LR, treated as a color image. WB, I took "As shot" suited best and pulled a bit the Temp slider down. Rest as usual till I liked the Histogram and overall :S3:
Conversion done in Silver Efex.

MK IV
f/5.6 1/2500
ISO 500
lens 300mm f/2.8 & 2x ext. II ( I do own now the 2x ext. III )
Time: 5pm
I could have gone lower with the ISO and a bit up with f, like the other B&W. But there have been 2 Giraffes around. The lionesses laid an eye on the calf! Well, me than too! Switched forward backwards a bit in the car and between the lionesses and lions!

[Andre Pretorius]

Stunning Anette! Love B&W conversion! On my monitor the short grasses around male look a bit burnt and oversharpened? Like the space he is staring into,the raised upper lip,and wind from behind.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Thank you very much Andre.
I actually have forgotten the punch in this image. Never do anything when you are in a hurry, bummer. :e3
Will wait what the others suggest. :bg3:
Have a RP sitting here, addressing already your concerns and my forgotten punch :w3

Thanks so much Andre

Ciao
Anette

[Joe Senzatimore]

Sweet. Would love to see a version with a bit of sepia tone to it.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Anette - great comp, expression and the wind blown look adds to it. I agree about the highlights in the fg. There also seems to be a blending or selection issue in the area on the right side of the lion's face as we look at it. Looking forward to your rp. Looks like you really had a lot of quality sightings of lions in Etosha.

TFS,
Rachel

[Anette Mossbacher]

Thank you very much Joe for stopping by. I am not quite a Sepia fan. Might give it a try :bg3:

Thank you very much Rachel for stopping by as well.
Here the RP, I pushed the blacks a bit more. Bright Lights Lumo, curve adjustment layer for the highlights, NR for BG, sharpened CS6
Rachel, beside the lions face I burned down a bit, hope it is gone what you have seen. There is a light bundle of hair right beside the lions right eye and beside his right ear!
For me it is not disturbing, well I see the image 50% zoomed! Was it that you have been talking about?


WDYT?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Anette - There is a semi-circular area coming down from the end of the tuft below the ear. It is more apparent in the op than the rp. I sent you an email with the arrows pointing to the area.

Rachel

[Anette Mossbacher]

Thanks a lot Rachel,

sent you a reply already. For the others, that is as well in the RAW file. Have seen it from the beginning, totally forgot it and my eyes probably adjusted to that. Will see what I can do with that. Might have to do a bit BG gardening for that strange "phenomena" :w3

Thanks so much Rachel for your mail to point it out to me :bg3:

Ciao
Anette

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image Anette, really like the wind swept mane and the expression, great detail and conversion works well. RP is definitely better. I would suggest loosing a little off the bottom perhaps a 16:9 as the oof grass in the fg doesnt add much for me, would maybe also lighten the face a little and try a little more selective sharpening on the face too. I have done a RP below, i hope you dont mind.

What i did was crop to 16:9 up from the bottom
Used Nik Silver efex, dropped a fe control poins on the face, increased brightness, amplified whites, amplified blacks and increased structure.
back into PS smart sharpen at 10% 0.3 Radius

The difference is subtle bit think it helps, WDYT?

128637

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Brendon,

thanks so much for your time and your RP. Looks great. Will try this on the file. The blacks came out quite a bit more. Had it already in Silver Efex a second time exactly for what you have done. Will push it a bit further :w3

Thanks so much again for your time and help

Have a great day

Ciao

Anette

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like this a lot, Anette. Cool pose and great toning. Remember it doesn't have to be an all-out sepia. I've found that adding a 2-5% sepia tint adds nice depth overall without turning it into an obvious sepia conversion :w3
Nice RP, Brendon, gives Anette some options.

[peter delaney]

Lovely Conversion Anette...I would just balance the sky ''burning'' in on the LHS...I think u cud draw a little more attention to the lions eye by whitening the stripe under the eye ....

well done

Peter

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Anette, I like the RP, but agree with Peter on burning in a bit more on the LHS or use a graduate filter in LR.

Why don't you do the B/W all in LR, you have everything you need & can tone it easily, plus you are working on the RAW, not a pixel based image. You can always refine it later.

TFS
Steve

[edwardselfe]

I really like this. I glance at it and then I look away, but my eyes are dragged back again to take in more of the detail. A lot has already been said, but what I like about this image is that it's not like the standard image of a male lion with the wind blowing his mane - the wind is blowing the mane the wrong way, and there's a pensive look on his face, like the weary expression of a troubled King. Love it.
On my screen, there's some banding in the sky, and the white grasses look luminous which I don't think helps. I prefer the crop on the OP and RP, but I think the bright white grasses might be toned down a little...? Just a thought. I love the bright whites behind his head, and the deep black mane. Awesome.
Ed

[Anette Mossbacher]

Sorry guys, haven't got any notification that there are more comments on Mr Grumpy :e3
Just saw now.

Thanks a lot Morkel, well I played as you said with the Sepia 2-5%. It must be my screen or my eyes or just all. I do not see any difference at all. Tonight I will print it in both versions to see what you are talking about. Might pop it up 2-3 more%, just to see :eek3: Thanks so much for your help, I highly appreciate it.


Hi Peter, as well thanks so much for your time and comment. Will check with the sky. It bothered me a bit already. Was just waiting till someone comes up with it :w3
The eye is easy done and will do it, thanks for that suggestion. :bg3:


Hi Steve, I would love to use LR for all B&W things I did with this image. It is just not so selective like in PS. LR makes me nuts sometimes. Say I want to have a gradient about 75% over the image, but a few details should not have the gradient applied! Tell me the how to, please :tinysmile_shy_t: yes I can use than NIK, with all the selective dots...etc. but I just love to brush with the brush. I tried my very best to do as much as possible in LR with this images. Guess I need to learn more about LR. Remember I do not use LR so long yet!!
The day will come :2eyes2:


Hi Ed, thanks so much for your comment. As mentioned above I was already waiting for a comment about the sky :S3:
I will do it again anyway, to learn more, especially to do more in LR, even when I kick it's "behind"
The bright grass has been toned down to about 235/240 already. More I do not want to go. But never know when I start over how it looks than. :c3:
I like it very much this way, as it shows the way the Grumpy head was going :S3:

Thank you very much everybody for your time and comments, I highly appreciate it :wave:

Have a great day, evening or maybe morning

Ciao
Anette

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Anette, what are you trying to achieve as there is a Graduate in LR & ACR, but a Gradient in PS?

Drop me a line.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Sorry Steve, got lost in translation!!! Graduate I am looking for. I use it in LR as well. Sorry for the confusion. English is my second language... :tinysmile_shy_t: