Concerned

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Friends,

I was going to share another Hyena image tonight but changed my mind and saving the Brownie for tomorrow evening

Browsing through some folders I came upon a few frames which I initially hesitated to process because they posed a big challenge in terms of composition. Still unsure whether you will like what I did, nevertheless happy to hear your thoughts and do bear in mind it is a bit of an experiment...

December 2017 and the Zuka lion pride had a few cubs, they were playful and so naughty and truly delightful. I spent most of the day watching them and trying to capture their antics in favourable light but did struggle a bit with the vegetation, with the cubs being so small I often had to wait for a little breeze to blow a blade or two of grass intersecting their faces.

At 07:39 am all members of the pride were relaxed and sleeping but every now and then a concerned adult got up or just raised its head a little to check for other predators. I tried to capture the expression on this lioness's face and at the same time include those limp bodies and sleepy faces, unfortunately cropped quite a bit because I had to straighten the frame and eliminate some vegetation.

Would be interested to know whether this works for you. I think the crop (almost 50%) did not affect the IQ to a great extent but you might find the image too tight overall. Do you think the lioness is sharp enough? She is the focus of attention so I was rather pleased with the other members of the pride fading away in the background.

Kindly chime in with your thoughts, critiques and RP's - I would really appreciate it.

Nikon D5
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 500
F6.3
1/1600s

Processed in LR and PSCC.

Kind regards,

[Marc Mol]

Keep experimenting Gabriela , this one has real merit, I love the symmetry in the sleeping lions and placement in the frame of the adult female. might just back off the sharpening a tad on her muzzle area.

Would have loved just a little more room on the LHS to fit more of the middle adult lionesses head and a tad more upper room for the top one, but overall this works for me.

TFS

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Gabriela, this is a good shot with that angled, raised head checking you out! The concept works fine and Marc has given some good suggestions.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Gabriela -- Always good to experiment on the field you never know what kind of image can be produced. I liked the concerned look on the main subject and sharpness looks good to me. IQ is good considering the amount of cropping you have done. Agree with Marc reg the inclusion of lioness's head, the one in the middle. I really liked the concept here. And forgot to mention , the light looks very nice and so are the colours.

TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Everyone, and thank you so much for input:)

The only reason why I cropped so tight on the LHS is, there's the back side of another adult lioness slightly covering the bum of the little cub next to mama. Quite prominent in terms of colour and very distracting, no way to clone it out unfortunately. I barely managed to fit the muzzle of the little cub at the top:)

Will take a look at the sharpening Marc, just hoping for more feedback to see if others have ideas I could implement.

Back soon, hope you all have a wonderful day,

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela. I like it too, wonder about f/5.6 so there is a tad less in focus in the FG? The 500 has all helped on both angle and to compress the BKG.

there's the back side of another adult lioness slightly covering the bum of the little cub next to mama. Quite prominent in terms of colour and very distracting, no way to clone it out unfortunately.

Without seeing it, hard to say Gabriela, as there maybe a way around it?

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Steve,

Thank you for taking the time to view and comment, appreciate it!

I remember spending a great deal of time at this sighting, waiting for those lazy girls and boys to move around. Played around with various settings and especially aperture to see what effect I could create. Here I tried to blur the BG for a less cluttered look, this obviously had the same effect on the FG.

I am aware of the shortcomings of this frame but still think it was a good exercise because I have learnt something. Sent you a jpg of the RAW to show you why I cropped so tight from the LHS

Warmest regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

I remember spending a great deal of time at this sighting, waiting for those lazy girls and boys to move around. Played around with various settings and especially aperture to see what effect I could create. Here I tried to blur the BG for a less cluttered look, this obviously had the same effect on the FG.

Like you, the is why I like a private vehicle because you can pick and choose, move position etc and not have to think about others, yes perhaps selfish, but you don't have the pressure of others and you can take your time and just stay with the pride as here. Blurring, there are so many options and ways and sometimes it's just partial.

I am aware of the shortcomings of this frame but still think it was a good exercise because I have learnt something.

Exploring and thinking is key and a great way to learn and just because you may not use something constantly, (or at all in some cases) it's always worth knowing what is available in your 'arsenal of kit' especially in PS just in case that feature or element might just be the right tool for the job.

Sent you a jpg of the RAW to show you why I cropped so tight from the LHS

And pinged it back, your initial thoughts were right on target.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Steve, I have learned a lot from just looking at this folder and comparing the settings I have experimented with at the time. Just took the entire batch in LR and looked at it, frame by frame, trying various things to see what works. Especially when it comes to composition, which is very important to me.

Glad I did not delete anything wafter downloading. One year ago it seemed I had nothing to work with from this lot but yesterday I realised I have a few keepers. Indeed they are not perfect from technical POV but some are really special

Got the image, thank you Used your advice for the next frame where the same character got in the way again...

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - I have not read most of the other comments. You asked for suggestions so i experimented with a black and white. It would be better to start with the RAW but looking at the op, i envisioned going darker with the subject and lighter with the bg. I did see from some of the comments I read as to why you could not include more to the left. It's always good to experiment both in the field and in pp. So here's my attempt.

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Rachel,

Thank you so much for B/W RP and my apologies for replying so late, was away this week-end.

I like your suggestion, also thinking I might not have to crop so much - that bit I had to eliminate on the LHS in my colour version might not look so prominent in monochrome. I'll give it a try

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead,