Backlit lion in the Masai Mara, early morning.
Canon 1DXII and 400/2.8II, Processed in Lightroom.
1/500, f2.8, ISO 125.
Greg
Backlit lion in the Masai Mara, early morning.
Canon 1DXII and 400/2.8II, Processed in Lightroom.
1/500, f2.8, ISO 125.
Greg
Hi Greg, overall the image looks dark and the colour appears flat with little life. Even shot early in the morning and partially backlit you could get more from it I think and introduce some colour to help lift the image. I do like the pose and overall framing once you see beyond the image. Personally I might have gone to f/7.1 or 8 with at least 1/1000, ISO 3200+ is a breeze with this camera, so don't let this curb getting better techs.
I'm not saying this is faithful to what you saw, just trying to help illustrate my thinking/POV.
TFS
Steve
This looks underexposed to me. Nice composition here and stare from the lion.
Hi Greg - I too am curious about the techs. If you were purposely underexposing to emphasize the rim light then I think you needed to go further but you also needed the lion to turn its head to give you more of a profile for a more silhouetted/underexposed subject to work. With the lion looking at you, I would have shot this normally, exposing for the lion. There's a magenta cast to the lion in the op. I hope you'll come back and let us know your thinking here.
TFS,
Rachel
Hi Greg, magnificent lion. I think Steve's edit and repost is where you want to be. It brings the lion out of the shadows. Thank you for sharing.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
www.amazinglight.smugmug.com
The reason we know the generic settings is so we can get a sharp image without motion blur in most situations. Here I had the freedom with a still subject, camera on a beanbag to achieve that easily, so went for something different. Primarily the depth of field - the lion is on a gentle slope with very little separation from the background, so went for the maximum blurring of the background. Carry the weight of the 2.8, I am going to use it... In this case 7.1 would give a very different photo. I agree I could have gone faster shutter speed and pushed up the ISO, but not needed here with IS, and although the 1DXII is fine at 3200ISO, in no way it is better than operating closer to 100.
I did underexpose deliberately also. You only see one shot here, but I had captured a lot of lions with well-lit faces, and was after something a little different. I just went and played with +/- exposure again, but I don't see anything I prefer. Particularly tried under more based on Rachel's comments, but I think because the sun angle is a little off square the backlit mane is not sufficiently prominent for that to work.
Each to their own! The pro I was traveling with used this frame to publicize their trip, but I agree it is not a conventional portrait.
Thanks for your comments, whether I was successful or not I hope you see what I was trying to achieve in this particular situation.
Greg