Lion Growl

[Bryan Pereira]

This female was not happy a rival from another pride was nearby. Shortly after this i got a nice snarl shot from her, unfortunately I couldn't nip out and cut the twig!


Hand held through an open window
Nikon D810 200-500 f5.6, 1/400 f5.6, iso 400 340mm, centre average metering, focusing is manually assigned single spot out of 51, back button focus
adjustments in Lightroom, sharpening is applied in PS CC
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[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Bryan - First, you can post larger images up to 1000px vertical or 1200px horizontal. I always like it when you can see the taste buds on the tongue of a lion. The twig doesn't really bother me on this one. I would prefer a bit more room left, right and above, though it does look like you had other members of the pride in the bg to contend with. Perhaps this was one to go even tighter (easier to say in hindsight than do at the time you are trying to capture the expression). It looks like the lighting wasn't easy and the highlights seem to have had a lot of recovery applied but still lack detail. Did you do anything to the lion's right eye (left as viewed)? It looks a little strange.

TFS,
Rachel

[Bryan Pereira]

Hi Racel,
Good question and a good idea to try a tighter crop too. The light was a little tricky, so some very slight adjustment was done to the right side, looking at it now I think I probably didnt need to do that as it wsa very slight. The right eye does look weird, I dont do highlight recovery, only shadow, If the highlight is far enough from the main point of interest (for me thats the eyes and mouth) I prefer to let them go in favor of a more average tonal range.
Typically on line 800pix is my maximum, unless its for stock, etc.
Ive done a crop of the eyes, higher res this is with no local adjustments.
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Thanks
b

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Bryan for the additional info but the EXIF data is showing -100 highlights and -47 whites applied. That's a lot of recovery IMHO. Generally, I try to never apply more than -50 for either slider and usually keep it to -35 or less. With shadows, personally I try to never go above +15 or 20 either. Let's see what others say.

Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Byan, the image has an RGB colour profile, for all web or Projected imagery an sRGB colour profile is the norm. You you just need to change the embedded colour profile when converting for web, this will also ensure your images are then correctly viewed as they should be and there is no colour shift either.

A bit tight all round, clipping the whiskers, but not a deal breaker, although some space all round in an ideal world would have been good. Hard to say when viewing the RGB image, but the colours look/appear quite pushed in their saturation, as the Greens are also influencing the whites, ditto some yellow and the tongue is quite rich in it's 'pinkness'. The light on the RH side also appears quite harsh, blowing the whites, this might be due to some recovery perhaps, hopefully the Raw has more tonal range. No idea on the Nikon ISO, but I feel 1/400 is on the borderline, a faster SS would have been better IMHO and ensured freezing the moment.

I would take full advantage of 1000px high Bryan, allows the viewer to have a better grasp of the capture and can also appreciate it more

TFS
Steve

[Bryan Pereira]

you are quite correct,
Ive reset everything to zero apart from dropping the general exposure about a stop, take a look, for me the burnt out spots are too distracting in this version
166348


Thanks Bryan for the additional info but the EXIF data is showing -100 highlights and -47 whites applied. That's a lot of recovery IMHO. Generally, I try to never apply more than -50 for either slider and usually keep it to -35 or less. With shadows, personally I try to never go above +15 or 20 either. Let's see what others say.

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Bryan she gave you a great snarl .
Nice to see all the details in the mouth .
I would agree with Rachel and Steve regarding the colors and the different tonal aspects .
For me blown whites are a no go in any image , unless it is high key image .Not talking about some spectacular HL that can easily be blown in capture , specially when photographing wet subjects .
The shrub does not bother me , but i think the lady is too tight in the frame .... needs more space , like the leopard .

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi Bryan -- I will agree with what is already said above , and especially the spacing all around . The snarl is menacing but the tightness all around is not working for me . But this image is certainly better in terms of colours then your previous posting . Do post more and TFS !

[Julie Rathbone]

Great capture, hard to get all the technical aspects at 100% when it's all happening...well done...interested to hear what you think of that lens, I have just purchased the same one, pretty happy so far


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