Lion cub 'flehmening...a mammalian behaviour in which the animal inhales with the mouth open and upper lip curled to facilitate exposure of the vomeronnasal organ (Jacobsons)to a scent or pheromone.
Practically as it came out of the camera....increased the highlights and shadows ever so slightly, no crop!
Canon 7D..100-400mm @400mm, ss 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 250. Handheld
Hi Patricia, and welcome to BPN! Hope you'll enjoy hanging out here!
This is a really nice image, and good explanation of the behavior. Excellent pose and lighting, with the second lion in the background contributing a sense of location.
It's just a little on the soft side -- you might try a very slight Smart Sharpen on the JPEG. Sometimes that can help a lot.
Hope to see more from you, and look forward to your comments on other images.
Last edited by Diane Miller; 05-02-2015 at 01:09 PM.
Hi Patricia - Welcome to BPN! Nice portrait of a flehmen response. I like tight portraits so the comp works for me although the lion in the bg and intersecting the head is not ideal but that's nature. We usually can't control it. There are a few spots that are a little hot on the face. You may be able to recover them a bit more in the RAW conversion. If it were mine I would actually back off on the contrast and open up the midtones a little. Like Diane, I would apply another round of sharpening. Looking forward to seeing more of your images.
Hi Patricia, if this is more or less straight from camera, then the exposure looks quite good, no clipped Blacks or Whites. You have some nice side lighting and I do like the way everything else slowly disappears into the more shady areas, emphasising more of the snarl too. Pretty cool to have the folds of skin curling back up, along the bridge of the nose. Looks like you had the focus point where it needed to be, you just needed a bit more DoF to keep the very front of the mouth sharp too, the closer the subject, the more DoF required. Always good to have a high SS, keep it that way, but with the 7D just be aware of the ISO and nailing the exposure correctly, it one of the less 'forgiving' bodies.
Just adding a bit of warmth to the overall image (nothing major or complicated) helps and it also brings a nice glossiness to the eye on the LHS as viewed. A slight Curves adjustment I think crispens the Blacks a little, offering more clarity, but NOT using Clarity. All Digital images require sharpening, in their nature they are soft, but always apply this to the final cropped image and only to the areas required, don't Globally apply this.
Thank you for your advise and I will definitely give it another 'go' to put your advise into practice.
I did have Evaluated metering but thought I would give 'Spot ' a try after reading various articles, I know noise is a big problem with the 7d , so try to keep a low ISO where possible.
Your welcome Patricia, just don't get too bogged down in PP stuff, remember, it's all about having fun, but sadly, PP is an integral part of the Digital age.
Steve has hit the nail on the head with his RP. I think what he emphasise is to not always apply your adjustments globally, some times limit it to certain areas
by using a mask. Just remember to blur the mask to prevent halos.
I think the ISO of 250 would allow you the use a slighter larger f-stop here to have a slightly bigger depth of field to include his complete face up to there lower jaw- in focus.
When you capture the images, play with different f-stops to see the effect at home on the bigger screen.
I think SS was sufficient for hand held.
ALWAYS resharpen your image after resizing for web before posting; selectively if you can.
My apologies for coming in so late, yesterday we had a busy day at work and a dinner date with friends - I did think of you and was looking forward to your first image!
Just like Rachel I am a great fan of portraits and I love what you have captured here. The pose is great and you got quite a snarl from this little one, so a very attractive image from my POV:) Love the expression on the subject's face and especially those wrinkles on the nose! Lovely light coming from the side and good detail on the nose, gums and tongue.
Steve's RP shows just how much you can achieve with a bit of sharpening before posting, and both him and Rachel gave you some great advice. Perhaps I am repeating what has been said already, I too think your SS was sufficient, just not enough DoF - had you chosen F6.3 or 7.1 you would have had more of the subject's face in focus. But I know tomorrow you'll be out there experimenting more and cannot wait to see your next image, well done on your first post and really looking forward to your next!
Hi Gabriela,
Thanks for your kind words, was a little apprehensive waiting for the first comments because even though I liked it...what do I know? Have got lots of this little guy to practice on...and more besides , so have got plenty to keep me busy, will try to put into practice all the good advise, hopefully there will be an improvement. Baby steps.
Flehmening Lion Cub
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