That quintessential blade of grass!

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Masai Mara gives some great opportunities to photograph lions in the open and the colours blend so well with the tan colour of the animal (or vice versa) but many a times we have a great stare only to be hampered by that blade of grass! Works for the theme though! Thanks to the mods for giving us this chance to put up our pics which would otherwise be somewhere in between a folder and recycle bin:bg3:
1/800
f/8
ISO 400
5D III
700mm

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - Good techs on this one. Too bad about the grass but you got a good stare. Did you clone the grass that stops just below the eye or did it naturally stop there? Only suggestion is that I would watch the blacks, they seem just a tad heavy here. Glad you like this month's theme. We felt it was a good one for us all to learn a bit from each other about what we consider flaws.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks Rachel. Nothing cloned out. The grass just stopped there.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- very nice intro , especially the last line .
Coming to the image , you have got a very good stare , with nice details . I feel a slight cw rotation is needed .

TFS !

[Steve Kaluski]

would otherwise be somewhere in between a folder and recycle bin

Hi Sanjeev, this certainly would not go in the bin, I rather like the inquisitive look of this youngster. I might back off on the Blacks, Contrast, Shadows and up the exposure a fraction, but with the high res RAW and a little time to remove the grass this to me, could easily jump out of this months theme into a posting of it's own, but just my take.

TFS
Steve

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Sanjeev

Was this image captured early morning or after a downpour?

Agree about the lacking of details in blacks, maybe try a masked curve layer with screen blending mode at low opacity?

I feel like blowing that grass stem away.. very,very often wished for telescopic, extendable (non limiting-can reach 50m) pruners that will fit in my camera bag...? :eek3::t3

Steve can certainly make that lion jump out of his box.

[Steve Kaluski]

Agree about the lacking of details in blacks, maybe try a masked curve layer with screen blending mode at low opacity?


No need Andre, just use the Exposure module in ACR/LR and tweak it that way, keep things simple, why complicate things :w3.

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Steve

If you did not open the image as a smart object from LR, does it mean you have to discard all your PS work and start again in LR?

[Steve Kaluski]

No Andre, you just export as a SO, or Tiff but this increases file size, work on the Export, save, it goes back into LR then Exp. You could even do any TK stuff in LR before Exp to PS.

BTW have you checked your mail, think I've solved your Embedded Profile issue.

Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Steve - how to use "TK stuff " in LR ?
I am curious how that works ?

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve - how to use "TK stuff " in LR ?

Maybe you cannot Andreas, I'm assuming as I can access the stuff I use via LR, oh well.

[Andreas Liedmann]

As there is no way to access actions/scripts in LR /ACR , just 3rd party plugins ...... as far as i know/understand. i just wonder what you are using within LR if you are not using a 3rd party plugin ?

[Gabriela Plesea]

A very pretty young lion Sanjeev, and I love the "punk" hairdo - tells me he is a very naughty **** at this stage:bg3:

Not sure about the composition but I am fine with the grasses in the FG as long as I can see this penetrating stare. Nice techs, IQ is there and so is sharpness - well done:)

I like Steve's RP, he lifted the blacks and brought back much needed detail, a couple of tweaks can make a big difference!

Err... party plug-ins and stuff, not sure one needs all of this really, I will only decide when I have used all that Photoshop itself has to offer, for now I like to keep things simple. Have you thought about shooting ETTR, Sanjeev? Just a thought... the only risk in doing so is exposing too much to the right, meaning you have to check the histogram quite often, to avoid blowing HL. Something to think about and experience in the future?

Lovely capture and it makes me go back to my lion folders. Really appreciate this post, enjoyed viewing, so sorry to comment so late - I would have loved to play and try various crops, but it is rather late and I need sleep so badly:)

Kind regards, hope you have a lovely week-end,