The Look

[Morkel Erasmus]

Sometimes, one really needs to stick to the basics. Great light, a cooperative subject, and a detailed close-up portrait all come together here. I got to know this young male and his brother a bit better during my time up in Etosha earlier this year as we saw them on a number of days. This photo was taken as the sun had just set on my last afternoon of the trip. Shooting with the Nikon D800 here allowed me to get immense detail (this photo is uncropped, 36 megapixels), and it performed well at the high ISO setting too! I had a few questions on previous threads about how high I am willing to push the D800...looking at this I am definitely comfortable up to ISO3200 for sure.


I used the Vibration Reduction function of my lens to ensure I got a sharp shot with the slow shutter speed I was using in the low light. I chose an aperture of f8 for better depth-of-field as the lion was quite close (15 meters away! ).


Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f8.0 | 1/160 SS | ISO-2800
VR on, lens resting on beanbag over Land Rover window
uncropped

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - I really like the soft light quality of this image. There's a feeling of intimacy and the low pov is great but my first impression is I would like just a bit more room all around. Did you by any chance take any portrait oriented images of just the head and paws? A beautiful image and the D800 certainly seems to be able to handle the high ISO.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Morkel super IQ, great POV, love the eye contact and detail. The light is awesome. Terrific image overall.

[Diane Miller]

Stunning! Sweet light, great detail... it speaks for itself, nothing to add.

[Jamie Douglas]

Hope you and your wife had a enjoyable anniversary weekend together buddy. There is so much natural emotion in a Lion's eyes that I think close ups work really well when they don't look directly at the camera. Great looking IQ at the high ISO.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Awesome, and one of my favorite subjects, big cats.

i too think I would like it even more, cropped vertical just to the edge right of the weed that is vertically crossing his tail/back leg.

only other problem I have with it.... 15 meters away gets a crazy face, no way not close enough....lol

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel,
great soft light with low POV a good combo.....
looking like this has ben an intimate encounter , the subject just ignores your presence at this stage, something more interesting must have been there.

I feel like Rachel it looks a bit too tight around the lions face , or not tight enough, room to explore .IQ is very good for ISO 3200.

Overall i feel the image is a bit light in the HL and the LM.There is some blue /cyan creeping through, easy to fix.

So took the liberty to share my thoughts via RP

WDYT ?

Still a very good and exciting lion portrait, love this Kgalagadi light.

TFS Andreas

[Andreas Liedmann]

Morkel,
just a technical question, wonder why you are not using VR all the time , any reason for this ?

Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

Andreas, nice repost - will have to check tonight on the proper monitor for better comparison.
It's actually ISO-2800 as per EXIF, just meant I would be comfortable pushing to ISO-3200.
And it's Etosha light, not Kgalagadi light, though they are similar in golden hour (more dust hanging in the air in Etosha though, which filters it nicely).

Morkel,
just a technical question, wonder why you are not using VR all the time , any reason for this ?

Well, if the light is good enough and my SS is high (typically higher than 1/800 or 1/1000) I normally switch off VR to save camera battery life. VR/IS doesn't really help if your SS is faster than double your focal length IMHO.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Oh and there were some giraffes ambling in from behind me at my 8 o'clock which had his attention...

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image Morkel, great detail and lovely pose and posture with the alert and concentrating stare makes the image, agree with a little cyan/blue sneaking in but as mentioned easy to fix, comp and crop works well for me not issues there

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Morkel,
sorry for ignoring the shooting location, i am just so used to your Kgalagadi lions ........ stupid me.

Andreas

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Morkel, very nice lion. Have seen those brothers, if this one is one of them
I might would turn a bit down the light/bright areas from the left eye ( when I look on the image ) the bright fur/mane. It is just a thin line. As well a bit the white bright hair around the mouth, selective. Not much else I would add
He has already caught scares in his face

Have a great day

Ciao
Anette

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mork, excellent detail captured on the big guys face, and I do like the intense stare. The low perspective looks good, even though you must have been shooting from a vehicle. Maybe a little more room on the RHS.

[edwardselfe]

This is a lovely image as usual. I think that it could do with a little more contrast than the OP but I think that Andreas's RP might have slightly too much saturation of the golden mane. It's not much though and you did well to frame perfectly when you had no space to spare. I would have like a little more space on both R and L, but since you didn't have it, I think you shared the available space perfectly.
Ed

[Markus Jais]

Absolutely stunning lion shot. Also like the repost.
The head angle is fantastic, can't be much better.
With all your amazing images I realize that I live on the wrong continent :-) Hopefully next year back to South Africa.

Markus

[hennieloots]

Hi Morkel - excellent portrait of a great subject. I like the low angle, the soft light and is fine with the comp. The stare and scars on the face add a lot of character to a already prime specimen. IMHO, I would also prefer more contrast in the face and mane.
TFS
Hennie

[Loi Nguyen]

Morkel, lovely image, great details, great light. Good choice of ISO and aperture. I'm Ok with the tight comp. The OP looks a bit bright on my monitor too and Andreas' RP looks better, but there was some Red creeping thru in the RP around the ears. Loi