I visited The Kruger National park in South Africa during December 2013, and on a cloudy morning in the south of the park near a place called Biyamiti Weir, I encountered two male lions that were lying on the dirt road. I sat there all alone with the two boys for about fifteen minutes, when I heard lions roar in the distance. The two males responded instantly and very loudly, roaring repeatedly over the next twenty minutes. It really made me feel small, and also very privileged to have been there with them to witness it and to hear it.
This is a slight crop from the left and the top.
Camera setting were:
Camera Model Canon EOS 6D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/400
Av(Aperture Value) 6.3
Metering Mode Spot Metering
Exposure Compensation +1/3
ISO Speed 1000
Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal Length 285.0mm
White Balance Mode Auto
The editing was done in LR, with the following adjustments:
Exposure - left unchanged.
Contrast +36
Highlights -12
Shadows +5
Whites -21
Blacks +14
Clarity +14
Vibrance +12
Saturation +7
Curves:
Highlighs -9
Lights 0
Darks +5
Shadows +7
No changes to any colours.
Used masking tool to up the sharpening on the lion only.
Luminance noise reduction: 15
Output sharpening for screen set to High.
I provided detailed information regarding my editing in order to learn, as my PP work is not there where I want it yet. All comments and critique are welcome.
Thanks for looking!
Nice calling pose and he is in good condition (true Kruger looking Male Lion). Looks like he has a reasonably full belly. Sharpness and colours look good, I think the PP works nicely.
Hi Thinus, I'm with Dumay, like the HA, you can almost sense the roar. I also quite like the grass & sand diagonal division, all the components seem to work well and I'm glad you didm't clip the tail, easy to do in something like this. Good call on the PP, if you are using LR5 (5.7) I am surprised you needed so much Contrast & Clarity. Personally I think you are way better off using Evaluated metering rather than Spot, it's just too small an area IMHO.
Hi Thinus - I agree nice roaring pose and colors and details look good. It's hard to comment on your pp settings because each image is slightly different and everyone gets comfortable with their own work flow. Is this ff? It might be a good alternative to include a bit more room to the left and above if you have it but not a deal breaker.