Saw this Lion in a dry river bed he walked towards our parked vehicle and sat facing us but was interested in a another lion roaring nearby. It was late in the
evening in fading light. Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.
D 800, 80-400mm AFS, F/6.3 1/100 @ 340mm ISO 2000. LR cropped slightly and straightened. PS adjusted levels and curves, NR applied in different
layers to BG and lion thereafter sharpened.
Nice pose of the lion, to bad that he is not looking to you.
Details are very nice. Maybe another round of Midtone to bring out a bit more the details of the lion would be good. Just a suggestion
Mashatu Game Reserve. I have been there, very nice and great sightings on every drive.
Hi Hiran, a very simple, yet clean image and a classic pose of what lions do best, lying down & looking.
At 1/100 you did remarkably well, was this on a tripod, bean bag or HH? Compositionwise I think the crop is the best. Tonally it does look a little flat and so applying some Curves adjustments to help the Blacks & Whites in the mid tone would help just lift things a bit and bring back some depth/contrast to the image. Personally I wouldn't apply any mid tone as I feel it's quite well balanced, however I would apply some more selective sharpening, but as I mentioned earlier, 1/100 is quite low for SS unless you are 'rock steady'!
Hiran, you did sharpen on a different layer without any NR applied?
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Steve, This was handheld but was resting the camera on the vehicle, my idea was to get the lowest possible camera angle. I did apply the curves adjustment and sharpened as suggested by you.
Answering your question I did take the lion to another Layer and applied a light Topaz Noise Reduction and thereafter did the rounds of Sharpening.
Anette, Thank you for your comment I did adjust the Midtone in Curves. Mashatu certainly was very interesting !
Answering your question I did take the lion to another Layer and applied a light Topaz Noise Reduction and thereafter did the rounds of Sharpening.
Sorry Hiran, can I just be clear, you have two layers, one where you applied Topaz NR only, then on a separate layer with NO Topaz applied, you applied sharpening?
I think the RP is looking a bit too contrasty now, this is where I was going with the OP when I made my comments, when there is too much black in the RP it chokes the shadows and fine mid tones where the detail is, hope this helps.
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Steve,
After the adjustments to the main picture, I isolated the BG from the main picture took it to another layer and and ran a strong Topaz NR. Then highlighted the Lion from the main picture took it to another Layer and dragged it above the BG layer. Then applied A light NR to the layer of the lion and thereafter onto the same layer of the Lion I applied sharpening.
Once I uploaded the picture I did think I might have gone a bit too much on curves. I like the image and the amount applied by you.