Nossob-A Sense of The Sublime

[Gabriela Plesea]

I am partial to deserts and ghostly appearances of majestic lions in unusual light. This image was taken one morning in the Kalahari about two weeks ago, it had been raining during the night and the clouds barely allowed the sun rays to come through. We tracked a lion's spoor in the sandy road and after some time we caught up with this beautiful male-we only managed a few images, he was walking with great purpose and did not linger in the road long enough for us to adjust our camera settings. This stunning representative of its species was later identified as "Nossob" by our dear friend Michael Sutton, who has seen and photographed him on numerous occasions in the past.

No special effects were used in processing this image-at the time I pressed the shutter button his face was visible and the rest of his body obscured by vegetation. I could remove some of the greens but I didn't. Could crop tighter, but I didn't. I have a B/W version of it but I prefer the colour version. Blurred the BG at 30% in places, mostly towards the edges. Lifted shadows and did a luminance layer on the face of the lion. Sharpened the face only. Hope you like it, I am open to suggestions and any ideas that might improve this image, critique of technical nature much appreciated.

Nikon D3S, Nikon 500/F4, ISO 800, F5, 1/4000s.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I love the "looking up" POV here, Gabriela, so typical of the northern Nossob riverbed. The f4 setting worked a treat for isolating him from the foliage.
I'm just not sold on the BG blurring - why was it even necessary? It's bled on over his ears and head, for starters...
I'd also play with the colour balance a bit - seems a tad too yellow?

[Marc Mol]

Can only agree with Morkel here, you have wonderful lighting here on the face, but the rest is a little dissappointing.
Any chance of posting the RAW file, so we could see the actual degree of blurring Gab?

[Nancy Bell]

I like the idea and the lighting but I first thought the blurring was dust. I think it is too close to the face and choking this majestic male. I also would be interested in seeing the original image.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - great pov and look that he is giving you. I have to agree with the others about the blur and also agree with Morkel on the yellows. I too would love to see it without the blurring.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Sorry Gabriela, the added effect has just killed the image, it just looks too processed and very unnatural.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello everyone,

Whew, it looks like I must upload the RAW file - will do so tonight. When I mentioned blurring at the edges, I meant edges of the image, not edges of the lion, so the original version is not far from what you see now. There were a few blades of grass here and there that spoiled this effect I achieved at F5, so I was blurring these instead of cloning them out. Let me show you the RAW first, then I look forward to your comments, please...chat soon!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Looking forward to the original Gabriela. I know this kind of effect can be achieved using shallow DOF, but some of it looks off.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello everyone, here's the original image…

Kind regards,

[Nancy Bell]

I like the bits of details of the grasses and vegetation showing. But I think the blurred part is just too close to the side of the head and nothing to be done about that.

[Martin Dunn]

A fine looking male Gabriela but I really don't like the blurring, it is very heavy. Sorry.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you all so much for your feedback, I appreciate your honest opinion and took some lessons from this post. I will try process other images of this lion, taken before he started vanishing among high grasses.

Don't know why I liked this so much, and I had this question on my mind since I started reading your replies. I know my PP work is not great but I still hoped you might like the scene. I remember looking at the lion through my lens as he walked away and marvelling at how lovely he was, he had this "ghostly" look about him. I guess the lens did not capture the scene the way my eyes saw it, and when I got home and looked at it - and still liked it - it was because I saw what I wanted to see. In other words, I later tried to recreate what I had in mind, which is the impression this sighting made on me at the time. The blurring did not make much difference, as you can see the original is not far from the processed version.

Mr. Kaluski told me once to process an image and then take some time, then go back and reassess - sorry Steve, I was too kin to share, I have learnt my lesson...

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela,
i absolutely love this ………………….. for everything the bokeh , the regal pose of this guy…. etc, i would invest some work in this image. I did a relatively short edit.
WDYT?
Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Andreas, good evening and great to hear from you again,

This is so kind of you, thank you! I was busy convincing myself to give up on this image but maybe there's some hope...Will see what can be done, I have some other versions of this but I shall put them aside for now, let them rest until I can have another look with fresh eyes. Your edit comes closer to what I saw that morning, I think. I really appreciate you taking the time to rescue this. It's far better than my version, thank you again


Warmest regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

No problemo, this too good to put it aside, at least for me.I think the major issue is just that tree/bush /branches in the BG. I would not work with a blur filter on this one, only negative clarity , possibly.
What i did was painting (selectively ) with some sampled blues from the BG over the distractions on a empty pixel layer, slight crop , some tonal / color tweaks and just slightly sharpen the head.The hard part is to mask out the head for the painting………………
Glad you like my RP, but i feel there is more to squeeze out of the image.

Cheers for now.Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, overall the image looks flat, and coupled with the shallow DoF the two I think/feel conspire to give the image that oomph it needs, something not found in your imagery. I think Andreas is moving in the right direction and so why not fire off the RAW and I'm sure he can give you one or two pointers in direction/approach and then the final item, the crop, to hopefully finalise the overall transition. For me it needs, light, tonality, warmth/richness.

Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Steve and Andreas,

I'll give this image a short break and then try a different approach, will contact you for some more pointers and to check whether I am going in the right direction

Warmest regards,