Back off!(C)

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

My last head shot of one of the White Lions at the Rhino & Lion Game Reserve closeby, giving you more or less an idea what it would look like just before you say your last prayers ! Taken from my elbows, 2 metres from the lion, with a fench between us - just after a snarl to tell me to back off. Therefore the ears pulled flat against its head. The wound just below its right eye is probably related to the flaw in the same eye. I've removed the blurred fence in LR but obviously could not remove it accross the lion's face. The sharp eye might thus still detect it.

D600, f/4, 1/2000s, 1250 ISO, 70mm, spot metering. Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8. Taken at 9:40am on a misty day.

[Nancy Bell]

Glad there was a fence between you two! This surely is an unusual view! I would consider just making this an image of the face-in-your-face, and crop away all the bkgd on the right. Might you get a bit more sharpness of the eyes?

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Glad there was a fence between you two! This surely is an unusual view! I would consider just making this an image of the face-in-your-face, and crop away all the bkgd on the right. Might you get a bit more sharpness of the eyes?

Without a fence I would have sat safely in my car, Nancy! I've removed the BG and did what I could with the eyes. I've also removed a subtle grey blur from its forehead, caused by the fence. WDYT?

[Nancy Bell]

Yes, good changes. But I really meant to totally remove the entire right side of the image, blue sky and all, so you just have the lion in a tighter frame.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice perspective Tobie, but comp-wise I'd crop off the RHS to make it a square crop...and the DOF just seems too shallow, only the nose and snout in focus - f8 would have gotten the eyes too?

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice perspective Tobie, but comp-wise I'd crop off the RHS to make it a square crop...and the DOF just seems too shallow, only the nose and snout in focus - f8 would have gotten the eyes too?

Thanks for your comment Morkel. Nancy also recommended the square crop - valid point but I just have not gotten to it yet. I was hesitant to do a crop of 'unusual' dimensions. The standard vertical crop is not going to work here as the face is too wide.

The lion was quite close to the fence so I needed a wide-ish aperture to blur the fence as much as possible. It would have been interesting to play with various apertures here to see up to which points they were usable, but as it goes with animals - they do not wait for you to finish your experiments! In hindsight f/5.6 might have been worthwhile without bringing the fence in focus too much - I had to leave enough blur to realistically remove the fence pattern crossing the lion's face. To be honest, I did not think that the eyes are out of focus but of course you guys look at it a bit 'stricter' than I do. Admittedly, the focus on the front part of the face is quite strong compared to the rest of the head.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Tobie, it's not about "how strict we look at it".

there is a distinct lack of sharpness and clarity along the plane of the eyes. Compare it to the front of the snout. Out of focus in this context of critique does not mean it looks like a highly blurred background without distinct shapes - it means critical focus and sharpness is lacking.

At f4 at this proximity at a reasonably long focal length this shallow DOF is to be expected. I do hear what you're saying about the fence.

;)

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

[clip] critical focus and sharpness is lacking.

Thanks - got it, Morkel!

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

The recommended square crop. Not a 'standard' set of dimensions, but I must admit I actually like it!

(PS Morkel I've realised the blurred area as discussed is actually where the blurred fence was crossing the face so not too much one can do about it after removing the fence lines)

[Nancy Bell]

Yes, this is the type of crop we meant. Good!