Hi Everyone, Just got back from a 10 day trip to Botswana. Great sightings of wild dogs and lions. I'm still going thru my files, but thought I should post one here to calibrate as I don't trust my current monitor especially brightness. Yeah, i gave in and ordered myself a Eizo ColorEdge CG277 while waiting for a flight at Johannesburg, but don't have it yet.
This is a male lion of a newly formed pride of himself and two lionesses. We caught him in early morning after he had gorged himself on a red lechwe the night before. He was just walking about to find a subtitle place to snooze, but his presence caused a commotion among the herd.
5D3
70-200f2.8 II + 1.4X III @ 165-mm (I put on the 1.4X sometimes just to see how it works)
1/800
f8
ISO-1600
Handheld
In LR5, reduced exposure by -0.24EV, Auto WB at 5450K
In CS6, reduced exposure further by -0.07EV, Levels, Curves to add contrast, Luminosity @ 10%, UMS 100/0.3/0
Hi Loi - Welcome back. He looks like a nice sized lion and he gave you a great pose with good eye contact. I like the overall scene a lot. Some of the highlights still look a bit bright. Try a luminosity mask at about 40%. If it were mine I would also drop the yellows a bit. It may be a bit too cool but I think the grass looks more natural and you get the idea. Looking forward to more from your trip.
Loi, this is a proper size lion and the angle you got here is excellent, places the viewer at eye level as if the big guy is coming right at us.
Rachel made some good points, but I would go for a post midway between yours and hers personally (in terms of brightness and colour).
Typical Duba terrain - did you see any lion-buffalo interaction?
Looking forward to more from your trip!
I think somewhere between the two for brightness, morning sun does have some luminosity and I would not want to lose it. Great example of a male lion though!
Hi Loi, yep typical Duba, love it. Can't comment on colours as I'm away, but looks like you got some good advice already. He is a real King for sure, but has he brought the two prides together? I like the lowish profile and Lechwe/Egret in the BKG adds to the scene.
Look forward to more.
TFS
Steve
BTW who was your guide, did you get 007? Eizo screens, the way to go, next stop is to have one for all your palettes etc and the other just for the image, it's the way to go.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Rachel, thank you for the advice. I did notice the yellow, but wanted to retain the golden fel of the early morning at duba Plains. Will look into reducing it a td when I get back tonight or tomorrow. Back on travel f work for one day.
Morkel, we hoped for lion-buffalo interaction, but didn't get it. The buffalo went over to the far island and the main pride went with them, we spent a day looking for them,but couldn't cross the high water channel. We did see a herd of oh nay be 40 buffalo on our last day, but no lion-buffalo interaction.
Steve, our guide at Duba is OB. and no, this male lion is with the smaller tribe of 3.
Hi Loi , welcome back hope you had a good time and bucket full of images to share.
Good starter with a great perspective and good choice of comp. Like the wide open space and the subject moving across the frame.I vote for OP in terms of colors and tones. But would watch the HL in the face of the lion.
Looks like you had a great time and I am sure we'll see more images from this trip.
This is one big, well fed lion and my eyes are drawn to his back, right there where the mane ends. He is in great condition, has almost no neck, and look at that belly index-wow! Not sure I would like to find one of these guys lying near my tent door in the morning...Crop is great and I like the POV. I like Rachel's RP when it comes to the lion, but I would like to retain the colour of the grass/environment from your OP, so somewhere in-between would be just picture-perfect for me. Cannot wait to see the other images you brought back, well done on this one and looking forward to more!
Hi Gabriela, your suggestion is right on the mark I think. As I recall the light was still quite warm and had a bright, golden feel that was so precious, so I wanted to retain that look and feel, but Rachel was right that the lion had too much yellow. So, your suggestion gave me a solution. Here I dropped the exposure by another -0.15EV so that the brightest part is around 237 and then I moved the white set point in Levels to 245. I also dropped the Yellow on the lion quite a bit. Hopefully this RP would hit the mark. Thank you all. Loi
Andreas, thank you. i did have a second thought whether my RP was too light on Yellow as the lightness on the lion skin draws my attention. So I agreed with your RP to be closer to reality. Loi
Stunning capture of this gentleman. Love the POV.
DOF working perfectly.
The colour of the grass is more natural with your OP and RP, yellows taken care in in your RP
Andreas's RP has got enhanced more mid tone contrast especially behind the shoulder, think it can be pushed more.
Pride Male Lion
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