Juvenile Lion

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A young lion watches the pride lazing in the grasslands of Masai Mara.
5D IV
100-400 II
1/800
f/5.6
ISO 3200

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sanjeev the content of this image does look very good . Nicely framed and the crop works perfect , the curious look to the rest of the pride is quite nice .
The pose is cool and works well in combo with crop .

From the IQ and editing POV ... i am not so fuzzed about the image .
At least the colors in the subject are looking slightly off IMHO . IQ has suffered for my taste for whatever reason .... detail is not fine and the fur looks crunchy . Is this a large crop ?
Regarding sharpening reduce the impact of the " white halo " by lowering the opacity of the halo . " Blend IF " would also help ....by splitting the left slider ( underlying layer ) and moving it to the right , at least to the 128 point on the scale .
If you do not know ...just ask Dr Google for the " Blend If " function and what is possible with this .

TFS Andreas

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Andreas, I think there is some issue with the PP here. This was processed in DPP and then in PS CC. a very small crop, maybe 10% max. The RAW is sharp. I think the colours and sharpening is the issue. I have ordered the calibration kit for my iMac 21 4K moitor.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Sanjeev,

Another cute little cub, wonderful pose, good POV, framing is great and I am glad you got him 'in the clear' with no grasses across his face.

I agree with Andreas, subject does appear a bit crunchy and lacking fine detail - had you processed this in LR I would suggest you go back on contrast and texture, but I am not familiar with DPP. Or maybe it is indeed a sharpening issue?

In terms of colour the cub's fur looks a bit unnatural ( leans towards orange) especially the face. Achieving the correct WB and not overdoing saturation will help correct this issue. If you go back to your 'Curious Cub' image, have a look at the colours and compare as I think there you were spot on

IMO this image has great potential and if the RAW looks good then definitely worth revisiting.

Thank you so much for sharing, and I hope you have a lovely week-end

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sanjeev .... the calibration kit does not help with the sharpening/ detail / IQ .... just helps with the consistency of colour and very marginally with tone .

I think the issue starts with DPP and first sharpening / NR settings , then you have to look how is the contrast in DPP and last but not least your orange is very often visible in your posts . This is an issue with the CR2 files in almost any converter . Just drop the oranges !!!! in every file with warm colors !! I drop them always by - 2 and change the hue to + 1 ( based on neutral picture style ) If you create the WB on the warm side it does become even worst !!!
Without knowing your sharpening settings in DPP , i suggest to use " sharpness " instead of " USM " set to 2-3 ( not higher !!!! ) . I always set NR to 0 in DPP ( luminance ) ..... chrominance is set to Auto . I do my NR in PS .... with Neat image .

Also interesting to what Kelvin you calibrate your IMac ....and how light/ dark you calibrate the screen . All does have somehow influence on the image and its presentation .

Cheers Andreas

[John Mack]

The pose and the way this is framed is great. Plenty of room for the little lion to look into. Like the grass surrounding it.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, IQ to me isn't there, something is wrong in this series of images. As I'm away and using the laptop I suggest forwarding the Raw file of this to Andreas, albeit you say it's sharp. If it is sharp then somewhere within your workflow you are 'masking' detail.

Steve