Hi Anette, good to see you avoided the grass & foliage obscuring parts of the face, not always that easy. I quite like the pose & comp, as the stare draws you in.
Firstly you added Vibrance, I would go back and mask the FG greens, they are looking rather dominant and I think if you tame the colour it would help overall IMHO. I would also look to applying a Lumo mask to help the FG/BKD, it just tones things back and you then may need to adjust the opacity, you know how. Just watch the whites don't go too white and begin to lose the fine detail, I appreciate you are going down in size & colour space, but you can still retain a lot. Sharpness looks OK and the whiskers look good, too many people in the past always sharpened them and they just stand out too much. Techs look good and the Levels look well balanced.
Nice one.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Anette,
lucky that you find a gap through the grass and foliage to get this tight portrait of the tiger.
Like the soft tones and colors in the image, good suggestions made by Steve.
I too would try to reduce the greens in the FG and add a bit more mid tone punch to the lighter parts in the surrounding area .
I like that both eyes are in the clear, Anette. Nice gaze you got.
Good points raised above...one way to get rid of the greens is to go monochrome (I always like to at least try it with these "hidden" shots).
Processed to make the greens and yellows very light, then burned some midtones and shadows on the tiger and dodged the eyes a bit...
WDYT?
Interesting Morkel, I like the idea of going Mono, however I would run a Grad on the lower LH corner to balance the mid tones elsewhere then I think it's working. It really pronounces those eyes going B/W.
Anette, although we have had a small dialog about this and you have various options now which hopefully will bring things together nicely, including some new thoughts available if you want to explore NIK too. This is my take on the OP, but I just opened the face up a fraction and tweaked the colour, hopefully retaining that nice warmth, but done on the laptop so it might be a little off perhaps??? Going Mono, or with a tint to it could create certainly a different look & feel and a nice departure too?
Love seeing these animals, thanks for posting.
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Anette - I really like that the eyes are in the clear here though I find the oof brighter foliage distracting. Steve's rp has helped to alleviate that, though personally I would drop the greens a bit more.
Thanks so much everybody for all your suggestions. I highly appreciate it
Morkel, you always bring a smile on my face when you mention B&W Well, if I would do that in B&W it would be different than yours. When I have the time I will give it a try. The lion took me lots of attempts and throw away layers, this maybe too, but worth a try.
Steve, thanks so much, I am on it. Will leave NIK on the side, just to learn more of our dialog If I don't try I don't get! I want to get, so I try
Hi Anette, playing and exploring is the best way IMHO, as you get to learn what each action does and the effect it has on the image. Understanding the basics will always give you a great platform to build on. To take on Curves, Blend modes, Channels etc it one go is too much. If you get the colour version looking right, or to the point you are happy post it, but I think you should explore B/W too, although IMHO you have to think in terms of TONE, rather than colour. Tones can be as difficult or more so than Colour and this is why I think Colour images sometimes do not translate well to being converted, as they do not have the same TONAL value that an image shot in B/W has. If you look at a real B/W print, the depth and tonal range is quite impressive.
The lion took me lots of attempts and throw away layers, this maybe too, but worth a try.
Getting to understanding layers & masks is the way to go, as you can do so much in a very short space of time and you can adjust, switch on or off etc, it even can change a Tiger into a Lion it seems
Good luck and hope to see a RP soon, remember, once you think it looks good take a break, then come back to it, that is often a good test.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Here my RP. I sadly could not turn the Tiger into a Lion, like Steve suggested. To many sea miles between :))
I toggled between Steve's and my image, pulled here a tiny bit, push here to truck down the cliff. Could not pull it up anymore, Said goodbye and started all over. That what came out of pulling an pushing.
Color wise, I need to go to the shop to get more paint!! Will try tonal 'paint' Steve.
Hi Anette, your perseverance is a great asset to you and I think you are really getting to grips with the power & knowledge of PS. Having the two images side by side you are going in the right direction, and I think, don't laugh, but combining the two will be a closer image.
Re Lion & Tiger, were you referring to your previous posting of a Lion, sorry it wasn't clear?
I would now hold fire and take a break, take the animals from the Ark for a walk.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Getting to understanding layers & masks is the way to go, as you can do so much in a very short space of time and you can adjust, switch on or off etc, it even can change a Tiger into a Lion it seems
See the quote above, that was Tiger via Lion Steve Maybe I did get lost in translation, remembers me the of a movie playing in Japan
I will hold now and walk the Noah's Ark passenger, the only passenger, thank god, into the forest
The toggling was quite some fun, nearly applied some layers on yours with all 'tabbing'
I am a bit late on the party here but for what its worth I prefer the repost as it addresses the things I felt the OP needed, ie the deeper colour in the Tiger makes it a stronger element in the comp like I think it should be...