Lion pose

[Tom Graham]

This taken in May of 2007 at Leopard Hills camp in South Africa. About late afternoon if I remember. We in the Land Rover were in a small gully, dry river bed, and lion was up on bank. And that is what I like most about the image, its perspective. Many times you are looking somewhat down - unless elephants :). Also the strong side lighting, right eye is in strong sunlight and eye contact. But enough about me :) -
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http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/0627d60fc89a2e2902b606714e59e72d6g.jpg
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Nikon D200, 300mm, f8, 1/250, ISO 400
Cropping - yes, about 10-15% around all sides. And that extra original space makes for interesting crop choices. I put his head just right of center. No cloning. Usual choices on white balance, saturation, etc.
Image is sRGB which should look same color for all of us. Thanks for your comments and feel free to re-work and post.
Tom

[Tom Graham]

Taking a clue from Morkel E. in another recent thread, I've taken same jpg and did PS unsharp at 20%, 50px, and 0. Pops it more and perhaps removes some haze? But also seems to harshen up light on face?
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http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/0e30f76d829f49b2ddda0e16ca0f67136g.jpg.
Tom

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Tom Do like the eye level perspective not often seen with lions, did well with the exposure.
Wish the lion was not in half shade but can do some tweaks in PS. Left side of face is a bit bright and would lighten the other .. not to even but get closer. Some extra detail in the chest area would be nice and would darken the corners just a little do draw attention at the center.

[Tom Graham]

Thanks Alfred.
In fact the corners and all four edges are burned in slightly. This effect discussed by Ansel Adams in his book "The Print", pages 110-116 (paperback edition). I think he applied it as SOP. So, maybe needs more here I guess. Thanks again.
Tom

[Harshad Barve]

Tom ,
Techs has been well covered here but I must say I am loving pose of King , excellent
TFS

[Todd Frost]

Nice pose and stare. As mentioned mixed light is the biggest issue here (animals never seem to understand where the best light is :(). I agree with Al on the nice eye level perspective and he gives some good pp advice.TFS
Todd

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice eye-level shot with side-lighting here Tom. I was at Leopard Hills earlier this year and it's an amazing lodge.

when using the contrast enhancement (thanks Robert Amoruso!) on wildlife it's usually better to do it on the large size file before resizing, although both work. when doing it on a wildlife shot that has facial detail I normally do it on a duplicate mask and then paint through the face a bit to soften the effect on the face (opacity about 50%).

I agree with Al on adding a vignette to focus the viewer more towards the lion. The highlights can be tamed by selecting the highlights with CTL+ALT+TILDE(~) (on a PC), and then creating a layer with that and blending it back using multiply.

[Tom Graham]

Thanks Harshad and Todd.
Morkel - I also liked Leopard Hills a lot, did you have Marius as your guide? He is very into photography. I have at least one more photo from there I'll put up. I've spent more safari time at MalaMala, Kirkman's Kamp, and Kruger.

Agree about that contrast enhancement, it seemed to harshen the light on the face too much. I would tone it back down like you say, thanks. I didn't here because I wanted to see if anyone would notice :) - and you did. And when I vignette darken the edges/corners I do it the Ansel Adams way :), burn it. Super tip on crtl+alt+tilde, works sweet, new to me, many thanks!!! Does it have a name?? Where/how is "sensitivity/tolerance/value" set up for it?? Anyway, I have a nice framed print and the photo is on a DVD so pretty much done with it.

Thanks all again - Tom

[Alfred Forns]

Tom Adams came up with three great ones The Print, The Negative and The Camera Classics !! Thanks for reminding me !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Marius was our guide and is a friend of mine...wonderful guide and excellent creative photographer, he had a multi-page spread on leopards in the BBC mag a little while ago

[Steve Kaluski]

Sorry Tom, just don't see the 'perspective'? I just find it too central with nothing go on to invite the viewer/reader to engage in the image and I really don't see any difference between the two images. I do quite like the eye contact, which is something I always like to see. BTW Do you work in RAW or JPEG as I am a bit unclear about your workflow based on previous postings and this would be good to know. I feel there is more to get out of the image than what has been posted and cropping too would help this to make it a far better image IMHO.


Image is sRGB which should look same color for all of us.

It will give you a fair reflection, however what you see, what Morkel sees and what I see will all be different to certain degrees, but it will give as, I say, a good understanding, however I am not going down that route.

TFS
Steve

[Tom Graham]

Thanks Steve. I agree there is no "perspective" in that there is no lead in diagonal line nor "s" curve. Just that the point-of-view, "perspective", is on line with the lions eyes. On many similar type lion photos we are looking down to some degree. (Why is another topic).

There is a difference in contrast between the two images, not dramatic, maybe you're not seeing it because you're not looking at my monitor :) . FWIW, I took both images from here BPN into PS and looked at the levels chart - here is screen shot - 1st above, then 2nd
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/8fe904fd198ff82528101a92d829f6d26g.jpg


Cropping. The original has much more room around for lot of choices on cropping. And I do agree lion is mostly centered. But I would not want to crop so close as to make it into another portrait that could have been taken at a zoo.

As for RAW or JPG this was JPG. IMHO workflow is very individualized, even RAW. Do RAW, then should I use ACR, NX2, DxO, ACDsee, Bibble, or ??? They all give different results!!! And even if RAW, probably the single most important image parameter is white balance, and or rather lack of it. And also brightness and contrast. How many people use a grey card with original shot for white balance and contrast reference? How many people instead set those in RAW by what they like? I'd say 100% of nature photographers. RAW does not define color or white balance, I can do (actually guess) much the same with jpg. I'm not saying that RAW does not have some advantages over jpg, RAW does give you more to work with, no question about that. But is RAW absolutely necessary to achieve good looking images? (And no I'm not a relative of Ken Rockwell :) )

Thanks for your comments - Tom

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Tom Image aside I need to make a few points which are not my opinion but fact !!

If you shoot JPEG you are throwing out lots of pixels and working in 8 bit, a clear disadvantage. Not aware of anyone doing serious nature photography shooting in jpeg !!

For conversion of the RAW image you can use different programs and will get slightly different results, some do better with certain type images etc. There will always be some variation with colors and using a gray card is not recommended.... if you do you would be balancing beautiful warm light late/early in the day to neutral.

Regarding the two histograms you are showing, both show the image overexposed, second a bit more than the first. You don't want any pixels running up the right side of the histogram.

RAW does not define color balance but you can alter the WB after the fact which is an nice choice to have.

We all do things a little different and the bottom line is the final image, how good is the image, makes not much difference how you get there. Hope this makes sense !! btw will be off line for a while but will try to check later.

[Tom Graham]

Alfred - agree with everything you said. And even before you said it :). My main upcoming project is to start working in RAW and see if I think is worth the extra effort for me. I've been reading about NX2 (Nikon) and ACR (Photoshop) and have yet to decide which one I'd prefer. I do not need extensive file management capabilities, e.g. naming, indexing, keywords. Have you a recommendation?
Thanks again - Tom

[Alfred Forns]

Posting from iPhone :)

would look into lightroom. Can get free dowload for the beta version
capable and excellent for management. Easy workflow, can go to ps and back.
Conversion just like acr. Worth looking !!