Its great when 3 light sources come together, ambient, spot and flash light, here a young male watches over his mother and sister at sunset as they move away from the river to rest after having a long and needed drink.
Hi Brendon, lovely portrait in exquisite BG. Good composition. The spot light was a little obvious here, I wonder if it would be better if you tone down the highlights a little bit. Loi
Hi Brandon. I agree, nice portrait, great eyes and very nice setting. For me the spotlight is not disturbing, as it is obviously and declared as a spotlight picture. I think it is reasonable good balanced. For me the lions ears down left is a bit disturbing, maybe crop those away?
Hi Brendon - another well done spotlit image. Nice color to the sky too. I did not notice the ears of the other lion in the llc until I read Gregor's comment but I agree with him and would crop from the bottom if it were mine.
Nice use of mixed lighting here, bud. I would perhaps burn the effect of the spotlight as it's a tad obvious to me - just even it out a little?
Good call on the ears by others...
Hi Brendon agree about your work with mixed lightning , well done.
Love the colors in the sky the most. I am generally 50/50 on this kind of shots.
Good suggestion/observations by others above in which i agree.
I'm no "fence sitter" Brendon when it comes to these type of images and are amoungst my favourites, all critique aside the sunset colour takes this up a notch for mine.
Thanks very much all, much appreciated. Below is a RP with the ears below removed and the little more toning on the lion. I must say i find it puzzling that quite a few people mentioned the obviousness of the spotlight, this image was captured at a time where it was pretty much dark with only a hint of ambient colours coming from the sky, thus my reason for using flash to help pop the lion as well as the colours in the sky, anyway my point is, in 99% of spotlit shots the spotlight is pretty obvious, you are using a bright light in an otherwise dark environment. Im not sure if i am missing something but from my experience under these conditions it is always going to be obvious when a spotlight or a flash has been used, or am i unaware of a method that makes images look otherwise?
RP looks good Brendon. What I personally meant by "the spotlight is obvious" - is actually that in the OP there's a definite "circular" area of enhanced light on the lion's face, as opposed to the whole lion being equally illuminated. Your RP has taken care of that exaggerated effect, at least to my eyes. :)
Brendon, I am late, late coming to this image. The repost is beautiful! When you asked about "obvious spotlight" my thoughts are exactly as Morkel explains. One tiny additional thought is removing those 2 white spots in the blurred grasses to the right of the lion. My brain wants to make them strange wide-set eyes !
The RP is a great improvement Brendon, albeit subtle tweaks, like the overall subtle tones, hues and colour. Your theory on lighting is right too IMHO.