Lion portrait

[Glenn Pure]

Male lion portrait from Timbavati Private Reserve, Kruger area, South Africa. My first male lion sighting. Taken in failing light at the end of the day so pushing my luck here with the shutter speed. Original image not tip-top in terms of detail but have managed to extract a reasonable amount through careful processing and some USM. Cropped from horizontal frame, maybe a third of the frame area here.

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may have.

Technical: Canon 80D with Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/60, f7.1, ISO 1250. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, Sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, reduced luminance NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements. Very modest NR applied to animal along with sharpening and stronger NR to background. A bit more USM applied to lion and lighting to enhance contrast. Sharpened animal only (sharpness function: remove Gaussian blur, radius = 0.4 pixels, 50%) after final size reduction.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Glenn quite a nice portrait, but yes you certainly were pushing you luck on the SS, but going portrait to avoid the crop would have helped the IQ as you would have had more data to play with. Personally I would flip this one to looking to the left, as flipping has no issue with regard to the capture, but I feel it sits better in frame. The image does appear to have a lot of reddish/orange in it, especially the face, to me it's more golden??? I think you are on the cusp of Contrast/Detail before things start to get 'crunchy'.

One thing I would suggest you look into for the New Year is monitor calibration as it's so key to the whole workflow and presentation of your images.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Glenn - A nice portrait of the male lion. I also think there's too much orange. If it were mine I would reduce the oranges and darken the reds. The blacks near the nose and eyes are slightly choked. Here's repost opening them slightly and making the color adjustments. You can do more with the blacks by going back to the raw. As Steve knows, I don't believe in flipping images. While I would not know if someone else had flipped their image, were I do to so for my own they just look wrong because I remember the sighting. Also with viewing on a screen in the digital age, it's not the same as viewing in a book or magazine.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Also with viewing on a screen in the digital age, it's not the same as viewing in a book or magazine.

I have to disagree Rachel, as I have always said, if the image looks/sits better in frame then go for it, it's all about presentation in my book and maximising the capture. For me it's too much of a 'straightjacket' to keep an image as shot if it looks better flipped - who would know?

In the days of even film, if the transparency had been duped, you had no idea which way the shot should go, but hoped you could tell by the emulsion side which way the image should go, unless of course it had some writing contained in it.

IMHO - I think we have to be open minded.

[Rachel Hollander]

Steve - I don't want to take this completely off-topic but you misunderstood my point. I don't think flipping an image ever improves it. Unless you're worried about which way an image faces on a page, I don't think in a stand alone image whether on the screen or printed it makes a difference which way it faces. Although I do understand that historically many portraits show the left side of the face looking right because most languages read from left to right and it was thought that as you scanned a picture from left to right it was more pleasing.

Cheers,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

I don't think flipping an image ever improves it.

As I said Rachel, it's all about 'presentation' and if it looks better then why not??? I guess for me, it's all about the end result and after 28 years in the creative business I will never change and if Software allows you to do then why not.

I do think we always need to look at the 'Bigger Picture' and think - from pressing that shutter, right through to how were will process the file to the end result. Flipping is just one very small element in the overall Development of an image, otherwise what happens for instance on converting from Colour to B/W, should we therefore have shot the image in B/W to preserve the original, as a colour image does not have the refinements of a B/W based image??

I do agree that we do not take this completely of topic, but it's an important discussion, and a lot of things have been born out through the Digital age, many elements for the good and perhaps a few less so, but it's embracing the positives that we can build on to enhance our images. As soon as you take the image into the PP process we are instantly changing the capture and have manipulated the moment.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve. You're still not getting what I am saying. I have never seen an image posted both ways and then said "oh, yeah, that makes a major difference. Flipping it certainly took it up a notch." For me, it does not make a difference in which direction the subject is facing as long as it is facing into the greater negative space whichever side of the frame that may be on. I usually just prefer whichever version I see first because that is then how my brain visualizes and remembers the image or scene in the future.

Sorry Glenn, and I hope you'll weigh in on the discussion.

[Mike Poole]

A nice frame Glenn, pretty impressive to have got as much detail as you have at such a slow shutter speed - only you know how far you're prepared to push the ISO - Dan Cad has some nice stuff with the 7d2 at 3200 but, from my experience at least, the more you crop into a shot the less leeway you get with pushing the ISO.

I understand the tight crop here as a them image - maybe one day post a looser shot with a bit more negative space to the right for comparison.

I like what Rachel did with the colours, they echo my initial feelings.

regarding the flipping, for me, sometime it works due to the way we tend to look at the shot left to right, but on this occasion for whatever reason I don't think it makes a difference - always going to be down to personal preference.

Mike

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you dearly Steve, Rachel and Mike: I don't consider anything in the exchange to be off-topic and happy to see these issues debated. For me I'm with Rachel on flipping. However, I am also happy to accept that others may see some benefit in flipping an image. It personally makes no difference to my visual satisfaction. So, I won't be 'flipping' any time soon. And apologies in advance for future shots that others may think should be flipped.

As for the colour and monitor calibration, I wondered about the colour on this one when I processed it but wasn't entirely sure where to take it. I think the comments about being too orange are on the mark and I've reworked it below. Thanks for that repost Rachel as it took it in the right direction but to my eye, your version is a bit too magenta. So, Steve, the issue here wasn't one about monitor calibration but about being happy about where to go with the colour here. I can see the problem easily and perhaps I should have sat on this for a few days before posting. Sometimes I get impatient and don't.

As for a wider view, I will hopefully remember to get to that, Mike! Thanks for the suggestion.

[Glenn Pure]

The blacks near the nose and eyes are slightly choked. Here's repost opening them slightly and making the color adjustments. You can do more with the blacks by going back to the raw.

Oh, sorry but forgot to comment on that Rachel. In cases like this I don't mind choked blacks where they are in areas where I don't expect or need to see detail. I'm much more cautious about blown highlights though. So, I take your point but wasn't concerned about that aspect and have not done anything on that front in the repost.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the image but I feel too much orange, DPP is a pain in the proverbial especially if you used Fine Detail for some reason they are more saturated in that profile. Regards flipping I feel sometimes it is better for sure and on some occasions I may be ambivalent.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Glenn -- A beautiful looking Lion and i agree with what Steve has to say , especially in his first comment. with looking the techs and comments I instantly felt that the ss must be quite low and that has considerably affected the IQ . Rachel's RP is certainly an improvement. TFS !

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is a gorgeous image Glenn. I love the framing, and personally, unless it was used in print somewhere, I would not flip anything. Perhaps that is the purist in my heart thinking that is how it was, that is how it is presented. That's all.

I do like the more muted looking repost as well.

Well done mate