The mean look (C)

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

A young white lion trying to look its meanest at the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve in SA. The mane is still developing and so also its canines (on its way to 3.5" length - eventually!). The folds in the skin is caused by its head making a sharp turn to the right in a lying down position. I've spent hours with a pride of eight on Saturday - the first time ever I was sitting in my car, listening to snoring lions!

D600, f/8, 1/500s, ISO 800, 135mm. Tamron 70-300mm. Beanbag in car window. General pp in LR to return its mud stained white coat's colours to the real thing.

[Morkel Erasmus]

It's a nice expression and you handled the harsh light well here, Tobie. I think in hindsight (or for when you go again) you should look at using f5.6 with this lens. I know it's a tad sharper stopped down, but with the lions being this close to the grass behind them you need all the shallow DOF you can get...to me the grasses really compete for my attention...what do you think?

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Tobie - another nice look at this lion. The angle emphasizes the Mohawk nicely. You did better with the highlights here but I still think you can tame them a bit more. There's also a red cast particularly in the mouth and chin area. I agree with Morkel that here the bg competes too much with the lion, perhaps because more of it is visible.

TFS,
Rachel

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

It's a nice expression and you handled the harsh light well here, Tobie. I think in hindsight (or for when you go again) you should look at using f5.6 with this lens. I know it's a tad sharper stopped down, but with the lions being this close to the grass behind them you need all the shallow DOF you can get...to me the grasses really compete for my attention...what do you think?

Thanks Morkel. I was just having fun on Saturday, playing with various combinations of settings (my previous thread of the same guy at f/13) and it just so happened that this nice facial expression came at f/8. But I agree with you - if I had to do it again, it would be at 5.6 at the most (something to burn into the memory banks for the future). I was not sure when facial blur would start kreeping in whilst trying to blur the grasses more and more but f/8 was not the ideal aperture yet.

Hi Tobie - another nice look at this lion. The angle emphasizes the Mohawk nicely. You did better with the highlights here but I still think you can tame them a bit more. There's also a red cast particularly in the mouth and chin area. I agree with Morkel that here the bg competes too much with the lion, perhaps because more of it is visible. TFS, Rachel

Thanks Rachel (I always hold me breath waiting for your response! ). I must admit I'm having problems seeing what you're referring to re. the red cast. Even when looking at it on the browser (which I've adjusted using Diane's handy 'Seeing images properly' sticky under Eager to Learn), I can't see it and I'm hesitant to try and adjust something I can't see (I might go too far or mess up something else which I can't see either). Not sure if you have any recommendations towards us seeing the same colors - or is it perhaps just our mismatch in 'trained eye' that is showing up here?

[Rachel Hollander]

Tobie - No need to hold your breath, Are you using a calibrated monitor? In this case the chin which I thought should have some white and the lips that should be black or close to back looked a little red when I viewed it in the browser. I then brought the image into PS and confirmed my suspicions with the eyedropper tool. Take a look at the image you just posted and see the difference in the mouth and chin area compared to this image. Bring both into LR or PS and check the areas with an eyedropper, you'll see what I mean.

Rachel

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Rachel I went into PS with both original pics, played around with the eyedropper and I'm getting the same results on both (not sure if I'm doing exactly what you're doing) so I'm somewhat lost. I've gone though Windows' screen calibration procedure so I guess it's reasonably calibrated. Looking at the lion's chin & lips I still can not see anything different from the real thing. The later pic's chin might look a little whiter simply because the light hit the lion a little differently in each pose...

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Tobie - when I go into PS and click on the lip of the lion on the left side as we view it (an area I would expect to be black or near black) I get readings of R 34, G 23 and B 23. In another spot nearby R 42, G32, and B 32. If I move to the front lip I get R 44, G 29 and B 30. These are just examples but indicate a red cast. Similarly, if I click on the fur of the chin in this image where the chin is white in the other image, the red value is much higher than the blue and green values.

I don't know how well the Windows calibration works.

Rachel