Sisters - A Mirror Image

[John Lowin]

Image created in the Musiara Marsh, Masi Mara, Kenya. These sisters are part of the Marsh Pride of lions, made famous by the BBC in Big Cat Diary. Temperature is over 100 degrees. This is a slide scan, so no detailed exposure data available. Hope you like it. C and C welcome, I'm here to learn. - John

Nikon F5
Nikkor 500mm f/4 AF-s
Kinesis Safari Sack (Bean Bag)
Kodak E100 VS

[Fabs Forns]

Very attractive line up, with plenty of detail in the front face. The OOF face is almost identical in position. I'd soften the lines in the negative space. Well done!

[denise ippolito]

John, I really like the two of them together. There seems to be a nice flow. Well done.

[Robert Amoruso]

Well done juxtaposition image John.

[D. Robert Franz]

Really like the intensity of the lions.. Good comp looking into and out of the frame. Makes you wonder what has their attention...

[John Lowin]

Very attractive line up, with plenty of detail in the front face. The OOF face is almost identical in position. I'd soften the lines in the negative space. Well done!

Hi Fabs,

Does this work better?

[John Lowin]

Great shot John. Nice lineup and composition. The lioness in the back shows some funny artifacts and could be removed by a very mild gaussian blur (I used .7 pix). Removing the noise in the BG adds another 0.1% to this great image. I also sharpened the image a bit.

Hi Peter,

By what method did you make your selection for the gaussian blur? Or did you blur the whole image and then selectively sharpen the front lioness? I had run "Noisweare" on the original image, but must have not removed enough. Any additional thoughts appreciated. Thanks. - John

[John Lowin]

Hi John, both for the noise reduction as well as the gaussian blur selection I used a quick mask. For example, for the oof lioness head I made sure the quick mask didn't touch the front lioness. In doing so, the blur will gradually fade out and will not affect the sharper areas. In short, QM the area, CTRL-J/CMD-J (Windows/Apple), Action, followed in some cases by a reduced opacity and when result is ok, CTRL-E/CMD-E, to merge the just processed layer. In other cases I use a reverse method: I select the areas I don't want to process and paste them in a new layer: I make sure I take a wide QM selection. I then select the layer below and do the action. It depends primarily on how easy the one or other QM selection can be made.

Thanks Peter, I appreciate your details! - John

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

John
Another magic image and the reposts are all great little improvements of the original. You are a privileged man having seen these world-famous felids. I am in awe. THanks for sharing this one too. :)

[DanWalters]

Great shot of these lions. I like how you positioned yourself to get this image. Adds some depth to the shot.