Lioness Profile

[Rachel Hollander]

Another image of a member of the Hollywood Pride taken in South Luangwa N.P., Zambia. Also another experiment with unconventional comp in the field. This is ff.

Canon 7D2
300 II plus 2x III
1/2500
f5.6
ISO 800
Monopod from safari vehicle, levels, curves, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Basil Dardagan]

Really interesting colours and textures and the detail in the fur is awesome. If you could have gotten a little more colour/life in the eye that would have really made the image imho. However its look like that would have been impossible

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, the light looks quite harsh, creating a contrast in Blacks to Whites, as the inside ear is deep in shadow, likewise the nostril and the Whites/Highlights right on the cusp. I would pull them back, in doing so more tonal range may come back. Being flat on to the sensor I would expect all to be sharp, but as presented the nose looks a tad soft, no real fine detail compared to the say near the eye. The crop is OK, not much leeway as this is FF, but a killer backdrop.

For me I think a bit more tonal depth would really help here.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Basil and Steve. Yes, Steve, it was late in the morning drive so light was already strong. I think I actually needed a bit more dof. At the distance we were to the lion of less than 10 feet/3 meters the dof with the combo I was using was only 1 cm. FP was on the eye.

Basil - yes, those long and full lashes prevented the light from hitting the eye.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Mike Poole]

really nice portrait Rachel, ideal world situation for me would have been to have had a 1.4x on instead of the 2x as I'd have like a tad more room below, but fully understand how it works in the field. I agree a bit more DoF would have been nicer as well, but its still a fine shot.

Mike

[Steve Kaluski]

Rachel, perhaps something along these lines based on what I was suggesting, it also starts to bring more detail back in, no additional sharpening, plus a bit more in the eye.

[Marc Mol]

I think I actually needed a bit more dof. At the distance we were to the lion of less than 10 feet/3 meters the dof with the combo I was using was only 1 cm.

DOF is even thinner than 1cm Rachel, at your 3M distance @ f/5.6 for 600mm, my DOF App (for APS-C Canon) shows it to be 0.4cm..

So in hindsight of course, to extract 1cm DOF @ f/5.6, with your 3m distance, one needed to be @ f/14 min. :e3 ....just goes to show what was really required here. So even dropping your S/S and raising ISO to 1600 would have still left you wanting.

Having said all that Steve's RP is showing an improvement here.

TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve and Marc. Marc - I just looked at my dof app and it only goes to hundredths of a meter so you are probably correct and it is even less. Steve - I like the additional detail. Thanks.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel , nice tight side profile !!!!
Super BG , fine details and very realistic colors !!!!
Agree that the tonal contrast is a wee bit strong , due to the lighting . Steve has balanced that nicely with his RP and pulled out even more detail !!

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- pretty late on this but glad that i dropped by or I would have missed the whole discussion, quite informative. I like what Steve has done in his RP, certainly more details . I liked the way you have framed against that lovely BKG .

TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andreas and Haseeb :wave:

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve has balanced that nicely with his RP and pulled out even more detail !!

Now that's interesting, good to know we see the same thing Andreas. :S3: