"We Three Queens of Botswana we are..."

[gail bisson]

I wish you all a very Merry Xmas or Happy Hanukah or just Happy Holidays and a healthy and photography filled New Year!
Canon 7D
f 5.6 100-400
SS 1/400
F 6.3
ISO 640
Taken at Little Mombo at 10:02 AM
Manual and cropped from horizontal to a square crop.
Cloned a branch away that crossed the rear lioness' face
PP in LR3 and cloning and NR and sharpening in CS5
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

[Rachel Hollander]

Gail - Happy Holidays and all the best for 2012 to you and your family as well. I certainly like that they are all looking in the same direction and sharpness looks good. I'm not sure of the crop though - not a fan of the partial legs on the one on the bottom, but I'm not sure I have a better idea. I wonder what moving a little further right if possible would have done for the shot. Since you already cloned one branch, maybe clone the branch that comes down between the 2nd and 3rd lion. BTW and I could be totally wrong but that looks like the start of a mane on the middle one?

TFS,
Rachel

[gail bisson]

BTW and I could be totally wrong but that looks like the start of a mane on the middle one?

TFS,
Rachel
Hi Rachel, You are absolutely right re: the start of the mane on the second lion! ROFL:bg3:I am such a dummy not to have noticed this before! If only I could change my title now...must be too much eggnog. This picture must be/is a dud anyway by the lack of responses!:e3 Back to the drawing board for me!!
Gail

[Tom Graham]

"This picture must be/is a dud anyway by the lack of responses!"
:S3: I know the feeling, my last one up got responses from only three others here. And those were about tech nits. Nothing about what makes/breaks a photo - light, composition, subject.

Yours, the problem I have with this image is the DOF. The top lion is in a strong frame position and is as important to the overall image as the other two. Thus should also be sharp.
What do think?
Tom

[Hilary Hann]

This picture must be/is a dud anyway by the lack of responses!:e3 Back to the drawing board for me!!
Gail

Not necessarily, maybe we are all a bit busy preparing for Christmas, I know I am. I look at all the images posted but don't have time to make any thoughtful or helpful critiques at the moment.

As far as this one is concerned, I would agree that greater depth of field would have helped, agree with Rachel's assessment of the crop, but not seeing the wider scene can't offer alternatives. Like the way the 3 lions are all looking in one direction. Not sure which side you cropped from the horizontal to get the square but you could experiment with leaving some legs in as I could live without room on the rhs but some on the left (as we look at the image) would be good. I would almost be tempted to throw the back lion oof more but without trying it can't say if it would be a plus or a minus. Coming from a portrait background, I always find dappled light problematic but that is a personal thing.

Hope you have a great Christmas. :bg3:

[Steve Kaluski]

Firstly Gail, trying to get a decent/different shot of lions can be difficult, as most of the time they are like this, fat & sleepy, unless of course a golden opportunity arises where they can take something down without expanding too much energy. In fact I saw this pride twice, having strayed into Mombo territory in November :bg3:, there were nine of them at different ages in a similar location, in the bushes resting, then they took a Bush buck down in the reeds.

I agree with Rachel about the crop and even going 650x800 doesn't even help, going slightly more portrait. The DOF looks OK and very little you could have done with the rear lioness. It does lack some clarity, sharpness & some depth depth (some Curves/Levels?) and perhaps a little warmth too, even though the light was a little harsh. Have you lightened this, as the colour looks a little washed out at the back? Overall the image portrays the situation, I just think it needs a little more refinement to give it some 'pop'.

Have a great Xmas

TFS
Steve

[Robert Amoruso]

Gail,

It is not a dud. You created an interesting juxtaposition of the lions. If I was making this image I would have done the same. Given the techs, going for a small aperture would have introduced other problems like high ISO noise, slow shutter motion blur, etc. depending upon you modified settings.

Since you chose to accentuate the depth in the image by juxtaposing the lions, one expects sharpness to recede into the distance. You only other option is three image, each focused on a different lion and blended together.

I think the image succeeds as posted - and I feel you chose a good place to cut the legs at. Merry Christmas.

[Tom Graham]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, just sloooww around here, soooo, looking for something to do :S3:
Looking at image I'm -guessing- the focal point was very near the eyes/noise of the bottom lion. Notice how sharp the grass is at bottom of frame.
If so, we need the help of our landscape photo friends and learn that "focus" occurs not only at the "focal point" but also before and after the focal point. Soooo, I'm thinking if focus were on middle lions eyes and at f8-f9 all three lion would look sharp. ??? At this point kind-of-like arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin!!! :Whoa!:
Merry Christmas Everyone and Best in the New Year - Tom

[Robert Amoruso]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, just sloooww around here, soooo, looking for something to do :S3:
Looking at image I'm -guessing- the focal point was very near the eyes/noise of the bottom lion. Notice how sharp the grass is at bottom of frame.
If so, we need the help of our landscape photo friends and learn that "focus" occurs not only at the "focal point" but also before and after the focal point. Soooo, I'm thinking if focus were on middle lions eyes and at f8-f9 all three lion would look sharp. ??? At this point kind-of-like arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin!!! :Whoa!:
Merry Christmas Everyone and Best in the New Year - Tom

Without the actual focal length used and the distance to subject known, we cannot accurately assess Hyperfocal Distance. You may be correct and maybe not. In any event, creating the three images I mentioned might have resulted in the one in the middle being critically focused on the middle lion with adequate HFD to maintain acceptable sharpness on the others.

If Gail knows the actual focal length and distance to subject and posts that, we can examine that in more detail.

What does occur at the focus point is know as critical sharpness. What occurs at points in front of and behind is called acceptable sharpness. At some point acceptable become unacceptable - that is Hyperfocal Distance. Good place to go to leanr above this is www.dofmaster.com.

[Steve Kaluski]

Without the actual focal length used and the distance to subject known

Hi Robert, the subject distance was 9.4m if that helps?

[Tom Graham]

Neat versatile DOF calculator Robert.
9.4m from image EXIF data. (lens was at 170mm) Assuming that is the focal point. But where 9.4m on image? Still need to know where that focal point was, front lions nose, or 2nd lions eye, or?? I'm thinking it was bottoms lions nose. If so, about half of DOF "wasted"
A snap of that DOF calculator for this data - but- it is assuming (I think) focal point was on secand lion.
Tom
106309

[gail bisson]

How can I find out that the distance is 9.4 meters and how do I figure out where the focus point was? I will gladly tell you if you can let me know how to do this. I am pretty sure focus point was just under second lion's eye
Gail

[Rachel Hollander]

Gail - To figure out where the focus point was you need to open the image in DPP and then under the "View" tab there is AF Point and you can click on it. I think Alt L also works. The focus point used will show in red on the image. The distance is visible in the exif data in PS, I'm not sure if it is also in DPP. I hope this helps.

Rachel

[gail bisson]

Thanks rachel,
Gail

[Harshad Barve]

nice image and excellent leaning thread
TFS