Lions with Topaz Clean

This image was taken with Pentax K10D & Sigma 70-300 @ 300mm.
Iso of 1600. F5.6 @ 1/1000 sec. Early afternoon.
Editing included Topaz Remask & Topaz clean: "Stylized".
Comments & Reposts welcome.
Cheers: Ian Mc

I love the lions and the vegetation. I am not a big fan of the sharp cut-out look and I do not get the three dark vertical lines....

I think this is an image for which personal taste is going to weigh heavily. I like that you've put the lions on a plain background. That's a real attention getter. I also like the filter effect on the male's mane and the vegetation. I'd offer a few suggestions, though, just based on my own preferences. I'd have feathered the outline so the transition to the background isn't so abrupt. I'm not sure about keeping the heavy brown stalk on the right side even if it extended up further. I would've gotten rid of it before applying the Stylized filter. And, even though I like the Stylized effect on the mane and vegetation, I'd have subdued it some with a mask on the rest of the image.

I would agree with the prior posts. Personally, I think the effect is a little strong on the male lion's body. But I like the image.

I might have changed the BG to black to help eleminate the edge effect that Dennis mentions and enhance the color of the lions. See attached.

Ian, I like the stylized look and the white background. I think I might try to refine the edges a bit more so it is not as cut out looking. Neat image and great interaction captured.

Thanks Artie. Dennis, Mark : Neat edit. & Denise. All comments & suggestions appreciated.
I thought of trying to feather the profiles which is something I've not done previously.
However when I went to Layers just applied Gaussian blur and then merged, sharpened with InFocus and darkened with contrast.
This is result.
Cheers: Ian Mc