Thank you Peter. When I took the photo, the lion had settled in this position which was in a small amount of shade. Although it evened out the light on his face, it left a large, very bright background patch which concerned me. I've tried to process this image for months with no success … I'd tried every technique in my pp book. I pulled up the image to do some collage work with it and needed to drop the saturation. When I started playing around with different levels of saturation, tonings etc. I found that this effect appealed to me and seemed to reduce the effects of the bright background.
I suppose what I'm trying to do, is get a file of techniques to use so that I can get the most out of my wildlife images as it isn't always possible to have ideal lighting, backgrounds etc. If I can train my eye to see possibilities in the field, with the situation in front of me and knowing what I can do in pp at home, I'll get many more images which I can use. Just another step in using every available tool to make the most of my little time in Africa.
I very rarely shoot for b&w, but am doing so more and more.
Hi Hilary - I like this a lot. Not sure if you have a little more on the left. I feel like his legs are right up against the edge and could use a little more room.