Inspired by Rachel's lovely leopard portrait I thought I'd share an image of a lion that made quite an impression on me. His face was pretty scarred but the wounds were already healing. This male had an expression on his face that reminded me somehow of Al Pacino playing the role of a powerful drug lord in Brian de Palma's movie Scarface.
See what you think of this, critique and comments welcome as usual. It is a very small crop. The subject was in proximity of the vehicle and soon after this frame was taken I was unable to focus on him, just too close. He was roaring beautifully, by the way. Walking and calling...Until the last deep guttural roars slowly turned into grunts...A magic moment indeed.
So the light wasn't great but I could not resist the temptation to grab a few frames. I decided not to add any warmth but during processing I had to raise exposure quite a bit. Processed in LR and PSCC, corrected some colour casts, then curves and levels, a bit of burn and dodge, nothing fancy
Nikon D5
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 4000
F7.1
1/2000s
Hope you all have a beautiful evening, and thank you so much for taking the time to view, I so appreciate it.
Hi Gabriela - I'm glad my image inspired you. Looks like he took a swipe of a claw across his face. Colors look good and detail. If it were mine I might give it a very slight boost in the midtones. Interesting how small his pupils seem to be despite the light being low.
This is a really fascinating expression, Gabriela. The poor animal looks quite dejected and beaten but I'm probably just anthropomorphising here. By poor light, I assume you mean weak light? I'd have said the soft light here is excellent and the complementary colours of the lion and background work well. As you mention, he was quite close which has limited your composition options. In an ideal world, I'd have a bit more on the left and maybe even a horizontal frame... but he was just too close for that with your fixed focal length lens.
Hi Gabriela -- Those scars are really well made, a complete paw i guess. Nicely framed , considering the proximity and opportunity you had. Light is fine I guess , soft infact , nice details and techs are all looking good. At first glance i feel the image slightly thin and a boost in midtones might help, hence, +1 with Rachel on that . A really nice frame.
A super portrait of Scarface! Love the muted lighting conditions and colours here with the scars adding loads of character to the subject. Well seen and captured. TFS Gabriela.
Hi Gabriela, I wished the head was up on this one rather than down. The expression I feel is rather flat and the eyes lifeless for this King of beasts. Maybe a bit of saturation just to lift the image and bring some sparkle back?
Many thanks for comments and advice, Steve Cannot do much about the lion's head in terms of position but I can quickly tweak some colours and bring some life into those eyes, hope I did not go too far
Scarface
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Cannot do much about the lion's head in terms of position but I can quickly tweak some colours and bring some life into those eyes, hope I did not go too far
