Siblings

[Hilary Hann]

Wasn't sure whether to post the colour or the sepia conversion so have stuck with this for now.
Two cubs from a combined litter of eight. Mara Reserve.
7D; 100-400 @ 400; ISO 800; f8; 1/250

[Marc Mol]

Like the composition here Hilary, with mum providing a nice vertical line, a tender moment indeed.
Sepia works well, howevr a colour submission might be worth posting?
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Agree with Marc on the composition, pity that you could not get any more of the faces, but this is nearly always impossible.

This does not look very Sepia to me , if you want to keep in B& W may I suggest a boost in contrast to bring out the tone a little more.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Marc & Ken. I purposely went for the eyes only as that was the effect I wanted. I have pix with faces but it wasn't what I was after. Looks toned on my monitor, maybe I've made it too subtle. Will post the colour for this later as I'm still not sure which I prefer.

[Steve Kaluski]

Nice comp Hilary and you have achieved what you set out for in the colour toning, although 'Sepia' is a bit 'old & tired' IMHO

It does look a little flat tonally I feel, would open it up a bit more. Is this FF?

TFS
Steve

[Steve Kaluski]

Sorry Hilary, after looking at it in PS it's not far off, but still I feel the 'solid' areas of blacks are chocking the detail. Not great, but is this in the right direction?

cheers
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

interesting composition here Hilary - I like that the eyes are visible.
I see Ken's point, but this is definitely "toned" and not pure B&W, although not 100% sepia. I would also like to see a bit more tonal range, maybe adjust the white and black points with the dropper?

I usually go with:
black: 10,10,10 (R/G/B)
grey: 133,133,133
white: 240,240,240

would love to see the colour version too?

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Steve, I like your version but I'm viewing on my iPhone so will check later. Sepia may be old and tired but so am I! :). I keep forgetting to go duotone as first port of call.

I'll try your readings as well, thanks Morkel.

Will post colour when back at my computer.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Hilary, well I am not able to offer numbers for your B and W conversion, but I can say I like the repost by Steve better than the OP, and I can also say that this is a very cute image, conveying intimacy, not just between mother and cub, but between the two cubs. Nicely done
grant

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Grant, I like Steve's repost better as well so will have to reprocess the image tomorrow. And post the colour version.

[Harshad Barve]

this image is screaming for wonderful colors these big cats posses
Love the design of image , very well seen & executed ,
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Hilary - your comp is something I have tried to achieve in the past but failed. Usually the cubs close their eyes or the mother moves . Well done. I too like Steve's version for the little more pop but congrats on seeing this image and capturing it.

TFS,
Rachel

[Austin Thomas]

I like this idea Hilary.

For me I would crop tighter, losing a little more off the left and right hand side.

Steve's version is an improvement because he has brought the eyes to life, amongst other things. In the original the eyes appear too dark.

tfs

Austin

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks everyone. Here is the colour version with a further crop as per Austin's suggestion. Compared to Steve's repost … which works better?

[Ken Watkins]

Hilary,

Seeing this gives me absolutely no ideas as to why you converted it, to say this looks miles better is complete understatement.

Thanks for posting the colour version

[Hilary Hann]

Fair enough Ken, thanks for the comments. I just really like b&w and mono tones and so I always look for images which will convert but in this case I just wasn't convinced either way. Glad to have any feedback.

[Andrew Merwin]

I much prefer the color version. I think this is a very emotive image. TFS

[Hilary Hann]

thanks Andrew

[Harshad Barve]

I was very much sure this will look far far better in colors