"Now...........this is how you do it!"

[Marc Mol]

Mum showing her younger cub just how to negotiate a water crossing.

D3s 500VR 1/2500s ISO400@f/5.6 Cropped out distracting treeline to pano. Masai Mara, Oct 2010

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marc, lovely light on mom as she is springing, and I like the sharpness of both lions. Comp wise, I would maybe take a tad off the bottom, and add to the top.

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely interaction here Marc...although for my tastes it would have been nice to see the actual water channel just to add more context to the jump. were you lying on the floor of the vehicle here?

I understand your reason for the crop, but would still like to see Stu's crop suggestion?

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Stu & Morkel.

lovely interaction here Marc...although for my tastes it would have been nice to see the actual water channel just to add more context to the jump. were you lying on the floor of the vehicle here?

I understand your reason for the crop, but would still like to see Stu's crop suggestion?

I was actually shooting this from the roof here Morkel for the reason as you mentioned, to try and get some water into the scene, here's the suggested recrop with tree lined BG and more FG taken out plus a slight lumo mask added.
Have now only cropped out some lower FG, not much water to be seen as was quite an angle & distance away.
I feel this in now maybe a better perspective?

Cheers
Marc

[Morkel Erasmus]

Marc - why on earth did you crop the trees out in the first place??

this gives the image so much more context and perspective...I like!!
I would perhaps nip a tad off the top so it's all tree and no patches of sky coming through? Something like this (hope you don't mind). I also cropped a bit more from the bottom.

I also toned the highlights down using Robert's "highlight burn mask" (not sure what he officially calls it, works a charm on bright images) - basically a selection of all highlights in the RGB channel (do it using the "dotted circle button" in the "channels" palette of CS5), duplicate layer, set blending mode to "multiply" and adjust opacity of the highlights layer to taste...here I made it 50%

What do you think?

[Marc Mol]

Marc - why on earth did you crop the trees out in the first place??

this gives the image so much more context and perspective...I like!!
I would perhaps nip a tad off the top so it's all tree and no patches of sky coming through? Something like this (hope you don't mind). I also cropped a bit more from the bottom.

I also toned the highlights down using Robert's "highlight burn mask" (not sure what he officially calls it, works a charm on bright images) - basically a selection of all highlights in the RGB channel (do it using the "dotted circle button" in the "channels" palette of CS5), duplicate layer, set blending mode to "multiply" and adjust opacity of the highlights layer to taste...here I made it 50%

What do you think?

The highlight burn mask is Robert's lumo mask, which is exactly what I used, (@ 50% opacity) I just reduced the saturation on the greens by 20% on mine, otherwise these are very similar except for the slight crop on the tree open space which looks effective.
Of course looking at this now made me realize the tree lined BG enhanced instead of detracting........stupid me
Thanks for the work Morkel.

[Morkel Erasmus]

ah, "lumo mask", I use similar luminosity masks in landscape blending, but then I normally use the highlights in the blue channel only. I do use Robert's technique quite often all around the park (thanks Robert ).

no problem...sometimes we need other people's eyes to see what's in front of us

[Steven Kersting]

Love the repost.
Personally I think it could loose a little off the left side. I probably would fill in the gaps in the tree line to achieve a more "conventional" format.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I probably would fill in the gaps in the tree line to achieve a more "conventional" format.

hey Steven - not quite sure what you meant here??

[Rachel Hollander]

Marc - like this a lot and then Morkel's repost with the trees but no sky really takes it up a notch. Good action well captured. In the OP you cloned out a bush or something dark behind the mother but not in repost, just curious why the different choice/

TFS,
Rachel

[Steven Kersting]

hey Steven - not quite sure what you meant here??

Instead of cropping down, clone in some tree to fill the gaps and get more of a conventional "framing" and less of a pano format.

[Hilary Hann]

Marc, just love this image - quite different for the Mara!

My view would be to keep the pano (as shown in Morkel's crop), keep the trees, remove the little dark tree stump as you did in the OP (as pointed out by Rachel) … as beautiful as it gets. Then the composition works on all levels as you get the balance back in and bring back the depth of the scene. Lovely light and DOF.

[Marc Mol]

I do use Robert's technique quite often all around the park (thanks Robert ).

Is does come in very handy and has saved quite a few harsh daytime images with me also Morkel .

no problem...sometimes we need other people's eyes to see what's in front of us

So true Morkel, all it takes sometimes is another persons perspective

[Ken Watkins]

Marc

Repost is much better presumably a very shallow channel?

[Per-Gunnar Ostby]

I am in definite agreement that the repost showing the trees is much better - gives the image much more impact

[Vivaldo Damilano]

I also prefer Morkels version, the tree make this image more interesting and gives the image more depth TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Marc, I much prefer the look of the light in Pane #4 as compared to the original post...

Which Robert????

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Marc, apologies for coming in late on this one.

I feel the repost just pushes into the next league. The inclusion of the BG makes a huge difference to the overall setting and enjoyment of the whole image. To me, Morkels repost gives a fraction more definition to the lioness and prefer the cleaner edge at the top where the lighter areas have been cropped. Either way, top marks for the repost, a 'Stella' image.

TFS
Steve

[Jay Gould]

Hi, I agree with Artie that the light in #4 is best; I also like Morkel's crop in #5 as it removes the grey blank sky.

I did an on screen crop and like the image much better without the grey blobs.

The highlight burn mask is Robert's lumo mask

Can we have some more information about Robert and his lumo mask?

[Marc Mol]

Marc, I much prefer the look of the light in Pane #4 as compared to the original post...

Thanks Artie

Which Robert????

Robert Amoruso

[Stephen Earle]

Pane 4 crop and tones with Steve's suggestion to fill in the trees. This is such a cool image Marc.

[Harshad Barve]

This is absolute rocking image , love the pose of both
TFS