Post Processing help for wife's lion

[Linwood Ferguson]

My wife wants a Giclee of this shot for Christmas. She took my old D80/18-200 and headed off to Africa, and took this shot (among about 700 others). I am not asking for critique of the shot, but rather help to make it as good as I can for a large (probably 20x30 or so) Giclee. It is cropped a bit, but decently sharp. I'm not quite sure it will work out that large, but willing to try.

Details: It is about 75% of the frame, cropped against the edge on bottom and left. The tail was chopped off, so I fuzzed it out a bit to make the merger less obvious. The color was very yellow "as shot", I used the white on the muzzle to get the color balance, and upped the saturation a bit especially in the green (to get some color in the grasses) and the gold for his mane. The mane is a bit over done, but she looked over my shoulder and likes it that way.

Pulling back to get his face at the 3rds point I think leaves too much boring grass in, but I tried to get it at about the third point vertically.

I sharpened a fair amount, and then masked off some of the grasses slightly to get a bit less edge effect in the grasses, not sure if I have done enough, but figure the Giclee effect on canvass is going to take it down another couple of notches.

I lightened the shadows on the face considerably, trying to stay just south of too fake of a look. I slightly darkened the pupil on the visible eye.

What else might I do? Suggestions very welcome -- can't reshoot, but want to get the best I can out of this one.

Here's a link to the full resolution if you care to look.

http://linwoodferguson.smugmug.com/T...95_Peqaz-O.jpg

PS. Was thinking of using EZPrints through Smugmug for the canvas print, but would welcome alternatives if there are better choices for this type of shot.

[Dave Phillips]

IMO, a canvas print of a smaller size "might" present for a normal viewing distance.
The jpg looks pretty rough and having a strange pixel sharpening.....no RAW??

I would try final pp prep and run a good giclee print first before paying for canvas.
You will then get an idea of the quality.......the canvas will help mask lack of detail
just a little bit.

For an inexpensive trial print try winkflash.com or any other service you may be familiar with

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Great shot, I will defer to Al, and Gus the can give bette advise than me. No virtual feet and tail tip are some things to consider before moving forward - and more room to do so too. What an experience and great image, thanks for sharing.

[Alfred Forns]

Good advice on the trial print but I think its going to work fine !! My only concern is the grass in front of the lion, might be over sharpened !!

Sharpening wise they will always look over for printing but come out just fine. Personally I rely on Photokit to sharpen the image at the printed resolution.

..... btw you did say it was cropped a little on the bottom .. you wanted a suggestion for the very best print and showing more of the virtual feet would do it !!

Let us know how it turns out .. I'm sure it will one good looking print !!! btw print wise might want to search Arties Bulletins, he mentions the place for his big prints !!!

[Linwood Ferguson]

IMO, a canvas print of a smaller size "might" present for a normal viewing distance.
The jpg looks pretty rough and having a strange pixel sharpening.....no RAW??

I have the raw. The sharpening may be overdone by me. Did you look at the full res version, or the very tiny one that was automatically downsized?

I would try final pp prep and run a good giclee print first before paying for canvas.
You will then get an idea of the quality.......the canvas will help mask lack of detail
just a little bit.

For an inexpensive trial print try winkflash.com or any other service you may be familiar with

I'm not sure I have time, but will check. Christmas is coming pretty quickly.

[Linwood Ferguson]

Good advice on the trial print but I think its going to work fine !! My only concern is the grass in front of the lion, might be over sharpened !!

That's easily fixed, I will cut back on the grasses even more.

Sharpening wise they will always look over for printing but come out just fine. Personally I rely on Photokit to sharpen the image at the printed resolution.

..... btw you did say it was cropped a little on the bottom .. you wanted a suggestion for the very best print and showing more of the virtual feet would do it !!

No. I meant to say that the edge on the bottom and the left is the actual image edge, I have cropped off space on the right, maybe 25% or so.

Let us know how it turns out .. I'm sure it will one good looking print !!! btw print wise might want to search Arties Bulletins, he mentions the place for his big prints !!!

I'm trying to talk her down a bit on size, but she wants it over a bed, so people who might see it will generally be 6-8' away. I'm hoping that the lack of detail may be hidden by distance.

It sounds like the consensus is I need to work more on sharpening, though. Anything else?

[Linwood Ferguson]

FWIW here's the original framing and color (straight import from lightroom):

Here's the original res if interested:

http://linwoodferguson.smugmug.com/p...72_X23v6-o.jpg

[Lance Peters]

Now if you were in Australia you could send it to me to print (One of the 3 biggest PRO labs in australia)
I would send the last one and talk to the lab about the result you want and let them handle it - you screen is not going to be balanced the same as were ever you get it printed. Cheapest option is not always the best.

[Linwood Ferguson]

Now if you were in Australia you could send it to me to print (One of the 3 biggest PRO labs in australia)
I would send the last one and talk to the lab about the result you want and let them handle it - you screen is not going to be balanced the same as were ever you get it printed. Cheapest option is not always the best.

I wasn't asking for the cheapest. I was asking for advice. I don't even recall suggesting the goal was to save money.

I've had little experience with pro labs, but in reading (e.g. a lot during Smugmug's offering of Bay Photo), it would appear that most wildlife photographers prefer not to have someone else do their color balance, whereas many if not most wedding pros do. I'm assuming that is because the 'real' colors are not so obvious in such shots, whereas weddings, with all the white, and pretty well respected ways of handling skin tone, lends more clues to a stranger.

I could use a lab that does manual color correction and post processing. Having seen what I have attempted, are such labs going to do a better job on a print like this?

[Linwood Ferguson]

Thank you everyone for the help. I ordered through Smugmug (EZPrints), and it came out exactly as expected, and my wife is quite happy. I did indeed adjust as recommended, and appreciate the help.

Now to find a good framer.