I went back into my archives for this one for the theme but reprocessed it. I always liked the way the convex lens of the eye shows in this profile. Taken in August 2009 in the Timbavati Game Reserve in South Africa.
Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/200
f5.6
ISO 400
HH from safari vehicle, cropped slightly for comp, levels, curves, luminosity mask, selective color adjustments, reduced the reds more, NR on bg, Nik detail extractor at 5%, resized and sharpened in CCPS.
Dear Rachel, This is beautiful, well exposed and amazing detail, love the colours and just about everything in this image, that includes crop and presentation in general. If I were to nit-pick, I would say the BG looks a bit "too smooth", but on the other hand it brings out the lion's face beautifully. Rachel, your processing is outstanding! ...And now I am waiting for Steve to come in and ask you to flip it the other way around (LOL)Warmest regards,
...And now I am waiting for Steve to come in and ask you to flip it the other way around (LOL)
Oh, ouch!
A very arresting image here Rachel, and the IQ is very impressive. I do like the balance and in all seriousness, the image can work both ways on this one, would work well as a DPS with headline & intro text in the BKG space.
Nice one.
I meant to add, this works really well as a Quadtone and I personally think even better than the colour, but personal taste, it's on it's way.
TFS
Steve
Last edited by Steve Kaluski; 03-21-2014 at 12:12 PM.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Thanks Steve, Gabriela and Steve. I'm glad you all like this one. Gabriela - I'm laughing because I kept thinking the bg wasn't smooth enough, especially just off the mouth so thought that would be the dominant criticism. I applied a round of NR just to try to smooth it a bit. At ISO 400 there was no noise. .
Rachel, this has become my favourite image of all you have posted so far, but then you know I am partial to lions . I want to touch this face on the screen, I want to read his thoughts, he is so handsome and you brought out his lovely features so well. If I am to be jealous of any of your images, this is the one! Don't know if I will should post a lion portrait again, after this? Would love to see what Nik detail extractor did for you here, would you mind sending me sometime a jpeg of the original, I marvel at your processing and would love to see the difference your PP work has made.
Try a B/W sometime, with all that detail this should be quite striking!
Thanks Gabriela, I'll send it off over the weekend. Watch your email. With both you and Steve making similar suggestions about a b&w or toned image, I think I'll work something up for next month's theme.
You cannot stop posting your lions shots. I am always envious of your Kalahari lion images.
Rachel, when you have a second to spare, kindly have a look at my recent post in OOTB entitled Failing to be Serious-a fun image I would like you to see It was taken a minute or so before we had these two youngsters staring into our lenses...
We are off to Durban tomorrow, back on Sunday evening-looking forward to your email
I love a small amount of Nik detail as well Rachel and you've used it to great effect here on this male,
I also like how you've managed to show just a hint of the mane like he has a fine coiffed hairstyle.
Thanks Marc and Nancy, much appreciated. Marc - I haven't used Detail Extractor on many of my images but know others swear by it so I thought I would experiment a bit with it here, where the IQ of the 50D image just isn't up to the IQ of images from my 5D3. I'm very happy with the results.
I'm coming in a bit late so I do not have much to add to the other possitive comments already mentioned, so let me just add "Picture perfect in my books - in all respects"! Well done Rachel!
Hi Andre, thanks. I used a lumo mask which I selected by hitting CTRL and RGB Channel at the same time. I also painted a mask with a brush for the curves adjustment.
Hi Rachel, a very simple but excellent lion portrait, very good job in getting all this detail out of the 50 D. Seems to be not that bad , if used properly and with care.
Like the overall tones and colors , well done.
Pensive Lion
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. I want to touch this face on the screen, I want to read his thoughts, he is so handsome and you brought out his lovely features so well. If I am to be jealous of any of your images, this is the one! Don't know if I will should post a lion portrait again, after this? Would love to see what Nik detail extractor did for you here, would you mind sending me sometime a jpeg of the original, I marvel at your processing and would love to see the difference your PP work has made. 
