Male Lion on the Sand River

[Dumay de Boulle]

Canon 5D MKIII
Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS @139mm
AV f4
TV 1/400
ISO 100
Exp +0,67
Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5

Thanks for looking:bg3:

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Dumay, this is really nice, Clean, majestic and well composed. Good sharpness where it matters and colours look good too,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dumay - This looks good with another relaxed pose of the cat. Good detail and soft colors. I'm guessing from the settings that this might have been late on a morning drive or early afternoon and slightly overcast? I might have gone for a bit more dof but it works as is too.

TFS,
Rachel

[Dumay de Boulle]

Thanks guys, Rachel it was taken in the early evening. If you could clarify why more DOF, the whole cat is sharp except for the end of the tail so I am uncertain as to why you say more DOF....?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dumay - the rear paws look a bit sharper to me than the front paws so I would have gone for a little more dof to have tail to front most paw in focus. Of course, this is easy to say in hindsight but I found myself on my recent trip if I actually had decent light and a stagnant subject then I tried a few different apertures.

Rachel

[Dumay de Boulle]

Well that make total sense. As you see I had the ISO very low so could have played with more DOF. I suppose I have to get past my days of bird photography thinking of trying to separate the subject more from the BG.

[Rachel Hollander]

Dumay - It's a matter of personal preference but having it in the so-called can gives options later. I would agree with you on the narrower dof with a busy bg that you wanted separation from but here with the sand the bg does not distract or detract.

Just my thoughts,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice lion here Dumay, always cool finding them on this patch of the Sands (the "beach" right?)
Old boy, has seen some stuff in his life.
Good discussion with Rachel - I often find myself going too shallow, especially now that I have a 400mm f2.8, trying to get that nice creamy bokeh, so fully understand your predicament :)

[John Hackney]

Well taken. Very good sharpness. As a bird photographer I too have the same issues with DOF. You have all of the critical areas sharp so missing the tail and paws as critical sharp is no issue to me.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Dumay -- A very majestic looking subject and nice details and sharpness , i tend to agree with Rachel's advice here , but it is always easily said then done , Very nicely done .

TFS !

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Dumay, seems a very relaxed, sleepy lion, but still conveys 'who's boss'.

With an uncluttered BKG as you have here and with enough distance between the subject and the BKG going for say f/8 I doubt would have any effect to the clean backdrop. With the ISO you had I would have easily cranked it to 400 with zero effect to IQ but would have given you more SS and a choice of unceasing your DoF. If you have it, then I might move the whole crop down, loosing a sliver off the top, but gaining a little at the foot. The tongue is a nice bonus.

TFS
Steve