Just try and take it from me!

[Marc Mol]

A 5 mth old male lion cub straddles "his" prize buffalo in glorious last light and gives me his best defiant staredown.

I got the feeling straight away that this young male would survive to adulthood, all the time keeping his siblings away from gaining his higher ground.

Selinda- Botswana

Nikon D4s
Nikkor 400 f/2.8E FL VR
f/7
1/1000s
ISO1600

Bean bag- front pax seat, cropped to portrait, curves, levels- TK adj, smart sharpen in PS CC'15 & ACR.

Cheers
Marc

[keith mitchell]

Marc your image says it all,love the almost scruffy rascal look of this youngster,really pulls your eye to him.

Keith.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Marc - Great eye contact and I like the way the paws add to the pose. The buffalo makes a good base platform too. If it were mine I might try to tone down the brighter bg as it draws the eye a bit. Also not sure about the sharpening. It looks a little crunchy on the face/head but it may be because the cub's fur is wet.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love the framing and light here, and of course the stare mate.
I agree with Rachel, another way to bring out the cub some more is to select it and add some LCE or tonal contrast?
I think you could shave some off the LHS to "symmetrise" the framing a bit?

[haseeb badar]

Hi Marc -- What a look !! I just loved the way you have framed this one , i too think that the wetness of the fur makes it appear as a bit over sharpened . The framing works for me as the cub is slightly tilted on its RHS direction so need to crop from the LHS I guess . Very nicely done and another unique frame from you .

TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Gripping scene Marc, and I love the possessive look on this young lion.

Well composed and the protagonist fills the frame nicely with his outstretched paws. It would be great if you could tone down those bright bits in the BG. Not sure what causes the slightly crunchy look on the lion, try perhaps a different blending mode when you work with curves and levels, like luminosity, and see if it makes a difference.

This youngster is so cute and I just love his tiny teeth showing Well seen and captured, Marc!

Kind regards,

[Andre Pretorius]

Love the stare Mark!
Angle very effective.

Techs covered above.

[Marc Mol]

Appreciate the positive comments everyone, many thanks.

If it were mine I might try to tone down the brighter bg as it draws the eye a bit. Also not sure about the sharpening. It looks a little crunchy on the face/head but it may be because the cub's fur is wet.

TFS,
Rachel

I actually increased the BG brightness/contrast here Rachel to evoke the late evening light, perhaps a little too much, all subjective of course, but I'm not seeing any sharpness issues here,

and when viewing on my Mac retina (which magnifies this) it looks pretty good to my eyes at least.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marc, super vertical comp, and what a pose with the two front legs spread across the buffalo. Great eye contact, and I agree to toning down the BG a touch. Im fine with the head with regards to sharpening.