The King and his meal

[ramesh anantharaman]

Canon EOS 7D

Canon 300mm f/2.8 L IS


300mm, 1/2000, f/3.2, ISO 400


I prefered a tight crop for this as it portrayed the way this huge fellow walked right toward the car with his prize. Hope it works.

[Kartikeya Puri]

Nice and sharp image and flies do add to it. Just a touch more on left would help you from clipping the hoof.

Cheers,
Kartik

[Marina Scarr]

What a powerful capture you have here. The vertical crop really works, although I may try a little more on the top and left. I think I would apply a little more sharpening to the lion's face.

[Sid Garige]

Raw nature at its best. Like the crop Ramesh.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Very very powerful capture !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Compelling sighting and capture Ramesh...
I do understand why you cropped tight, I just feel it's a tad too tight, as mentioned some space on the LHS would prevent the hoof from being clipped. Some space below would be beneficial as it would convey the movement towards the viewer (there's nothing telling me he's heading somewhere, could be standing still for all I know? )...and lastly just a sliver on top to prevent his mane hairs from being clipped (if you have the space there)...you can still maintain a 'tight' view IMHO by adding the space as I suggested.

What do you think?

[ramesh anantharaman]

Here is a repost of the full frame. Hope this works

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Ramesh

Seeing how the full frame image came out explains some things - like the hoof

Here is how I would crop your out-of-camera image...of course this is my opinion only so you are welcome to disagree ...

I only cropped from the top to leave the space you did have at the bottom, and I also left more space on RHS as he seems to be headed more in that direction...this also placed the eye on a strong rule-of-thirds horizontal line.

[ramesh anantharaman]

Hello Morkel,

This is the whole point. In situations like this I generally get really confused and to make my own life simple i either leave it full frame or crop tight as i strart wondering/pondering a lot. Like if i crop too much on the top may be the Bg is lost or if i crop on the right the hoof is lost or if i crop at the bottom may be the action (what ever little of it in this case) is lost. so i just took the easy way out and cropped tight. But After the reasons you have given. I think I will start looking at it more on those lines from now on. Thanks so much. I hope you understand the confusion. The same happened on the cheetah I posted earlier. i wanted a lot of Bg and to show the wide open spaces, but also wanted to compose in the right direction. Now I know how to think about it. Thanks a lot again.

warm regards

Ramesh

[ramesh anantharaman]

By the way i did not mention it But love the crop Morkel. Thanks Again.

[Marina Scarr]

Hello Morkel,

This is the whole point. In situations like this I generally get really confused and to make my own life simple i either leave it full frame or crop tight as i strart wondering/pondering a lot. Like if i crop too much on the top may be the Bg is lost or if i crop on the right the hoof is lost or if i crop at the bottom may be the action (what ever little of it in this case) is lost. so i just took the easy way out and cropped tight. But After the reasons you have given. I think I will start looking at it more on those lines from now on. Thanks so much. I hope you understand the confusion. The same happened on the cheetah I posted earlier. i wanted a lot of Bg and to show the wide open spaces, but also wanted to compose in the right direction. Now I know how to think about it. Thanks a lot again.

warm regards

Ramesh

I understand your frustration Ramesh. That is the whole point of a forum like BPN. We can learn so much from the moderators and each other. We are also given good advice and a # of options. Posts like these help us to plan our shots in camera better and better. The more you look at and evaluate other people's pictures and look at the critiques, I find the more it helps me with my own photography.

Kudos to Morkel for a great choice i crops. There are times it takes several crops before you get the one that really works the best.

[Harshad Barve]

If I were you , I would use my 500mm, and compose VERY TIGHT , predator with kill means nothing but MEAL and EYES and it has to be GORY
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is the whole point. In situations like this I generally get really confused and to make my own life simple i either leave it full frame or crop tight as i strart wondering/pondering a lot. Like if i crop too much on the top may be the Bg is lost or if i crop on the right the hoof is lost or if i crop at the bottom may be the action (what ever little of it in this case) is lost. so i just took the easy way out and cropped tight. But After the reasons you have given. I think I will start looking at it more on those lines from now on. Thanks so much. I hope you understand the confusion. The same happened on the cheetah I posted earlier. i wanted a lot of Bg and to show the wide open spaces, but also wanted to compose in the right direction. Now I know how to think about it. Thanks a lot again.

You're welcome...

I have to tell you, we all struggle with that! When a good sighting is on, sometimes the last thing we think about is composition...and when shooting with fixed lenses it increases the dilemma. Just on my recent trip 2 weeks ago I chopped off some body parts just because I wasn't paying attention to the entire viewfinder when photographing the animal . What I can tell you is to try and use the space around the animal to tell the story, to give the viewer an idea of 'what happened next' if you will...

[Tom Graham]

FWIW (not much!), as I probably say every few months, I make a conscious effort to -not- compose tightly in the viewfinder. Leave the crop for PP when you can try variations on it. And, this sure was a hard habit to break (composing in viewfinder) after many year of shooting 35mm chromes. But now thank God for Photoshop!!
Tom

[Dumay de Boulle]

Exceptional IQ and raw (no pun intended) africa at its best...Light well handled...Very nice

[DanWalters]

Love the look of the lion. Kind of like the original crop with the preys head hanging off to one side. Also shows more of the flies swarming around the lion and prey.

[Robert Amoruso]

You're welcome...

I have to tell you, we all struggle with that! When a good sighting is on, sometimes the last thing we think about is composition...and when shooting with fixed lenses it increases the dilemma. Just on my recent trip 2 weeks ago I chopped off some body parts just because I wasn't paying attention to the entire viewfinder when photographing the animal . What I can tell you is to try and use the space around the animal to tell the story, to give the viewer an idea of 'what happened next' if you will...

Morkel brought up good points here and in his previous post.