Tender moment or a telling off?

[Paul Taylor]

I took this shot (one of a long series) in Kenya late last year. I think it's a telling off but it could be tender encouragement - I don't speak lion yet. It's my first shot posted here but I'm used to forum posting and, as this one of a series, the sooner I realise I'm barking up the wrong tree the better! Also, after a year or two of viewing pictures here, I gladly acknowledge that a lot of the posters on this forum are in another class from where I am now - so no wounded ego! :)

http://paul-k-imburu.smugmug.com/photos/776563096_CR9jo-XL-1.jpg

Sony A700 + Minolta 300/4 with a 1.4x TC (in case you are not familiar, the lens and TC are matched and excellent - no excuses for me there!) f7.1 1/1000s ISO 400. Cropped all around, especially from the top (this was planned). A couple of blades of grass removed and some selective sharpening and blurring. Conversion to monochrome done through Channel Mixer, with a Contrast and Multiply layers on top of that and a bit of dodging on the faces. Selected darkening on background and edges. Colourised a tiny bit. The colour version of this shot is fine by the way (sun was strong but not a colour-killer) but I find myself liking monochrome more and more with all my photography, and I think in monochrome the strong shadow actually becomes a positive, due to it being behind the focal point.

Hope this works, and that I didn't break the rules!

EDIT: The leg on the right in shadow looks bad to me when posted .... it's certainly not as featureless as that! Apologies, I'll try another jpeg conversion and upload and in the meantime please ignore it.

[Harshad Barve]

Big welcome to BPN & wildlife. I guess soon you will come know how big fan I am of these BIG CATS ,

Impressive image to start with , I must confess I do not like B/W images in wildlife but I will take this for the excellent moment you have captured. Crop looks good to me. Take my word, expressions on cub's face are PRICELESS:)

All in all this is excellent image
TFS

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Paul

Big Warm Welcome to Wildlife !!!! .... defininetley a tender moment !!!

For converting to B&H there are many different ways and dedicated programs, I have found LR doing the best job so far. Seems to give excellent control and working curves for initial global contrast. Also with introduction of 2.0 (soon to be 3.0) you can mask areas for local contrast adjustments, works well

As presented would like to see more tonal range, B&W is all about contrast, find it much more challenging than color !! btw for uploading make you use save for web for best results !

[Paul Taylor]

Thank you for the welcome Alfred and Harshad. B&W is certainly not easy - sometimes I spend an hour or more on a picture and get nothing worthwhile. I am very seriously considering Lightroom. Curves seem very tricky in GIMP and there is no "save for web" option.

I did another, more contrasty version for . The leg is going to be a problem at this size... - it's in the shadow from the other leg (which reminded me that I forgot to mention that I had cloned out the very tip of the other foot of the lioness, which was poking in from the right). For now I've done a crop to minimise the leg so it is less annoying.

I will try to subject future posts to better QC. :-)

http://paul-k-imburu.smugmug.com/photos/776729445_4h9YJ-XL.jpg

[Steve Canuel]

Welcome. Nice interaction and that sure is one cute cub. I prefer the cub from the repost and the mom of the original. The shadow is a bit overpowering for me personally but I admit to being a color guy. Let's see more from the series.

[Ken Watkins]

Welcome, definitely a tender moment.

Like Harshad I am not a great fan of B& W, this looks to have to much contrast for my taste.

Nice to see somebody with a different camera combination!!!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Paul,
Welcome to BPN!

Lovely interaction. A tender moment. I am sure watching it would have been fantastic. I agree with Alfred that Lightroom is good for black and white. You may download the Lightroom 3 beta free of cost and try. Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Marc Mol]

Welcome Paul, a tender moment for me also. Not a fan of a lot of B&W in nature photography, but comp and the moment itself has been well captured. A color version perhaps?
TFS

[Paul Taylor]

Thanks everyone. A pity most are not keen on B&W, but I have to admit that for the most part my own favorite wildlife images are colour ones. I just love the extra emphasis on form, and composition in monochrome images, and the massive difference relatively small changes in light and tone can make - B&W processing is such a joy. I will certainly be posting more, and hopefull some better ones in the future, but I have just as much to learn in colour.

Ken... While I suppose it is fair to say that right now there are effectively still only two choices at the very top end for wildlife, I do wonder why I so rarely seem to see Sony or Olympus or Pentax owners posting wildlife shots on forums like this. Minolta 600/4's don't last long on the second hand market unless someone's asking $6000 for one with a dent in it, so it's not that there aren't any, and hopefully people parting with $6500 for a second-hand lens are getting some decent shots with it.

Steve... Agree re. cub and mum - very helpful spot and thanks.