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Thread: Peek a Boo Breakfast (graphic)

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    Default Peek a Boo Breakfast (graphic)

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    Male lion eating a zebra just before sunrise on the Serengeti in Tanzania.

    Canon 1D Mark II, Canon 500 mm f/4 L IS lens plus a 1.4x teleconverter giving 700 mm at f/5.6. Exposure: 1/100 second at ISO 400. About 90% of full frame.

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Roger - I like the framing and the detail. The lion seems a little yellow to me but it may just be the early morning light. Well seen and captured.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Hey Roger, what a wonderful image!!! I really love the absence of the other eye from the image-if both were present, it would still be great-but not quite as strong to me. Thanks for sharing!!

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    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    Interesting comp Roger. Despite the bright color contrast draw of the flesh and bone, that single eye poking over the meal really grabs the viewer's attention.

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    Ken Watkins
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    Roger,

    I think a lot of people would reject this as the face is not as clear as it could be, but I think you have hit on something here.

    The colours are vibrant as they should be at this time, my only suggestion would be to try and tone down the whites in the bones at the bottom.

    Totally different

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    Roger ,
    This is amazing image , I liked it lot , If mine I may try re-posted crop. As you say this is FF IQ will be fine , Big congrats for this winner
    TFS

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Roger, a very dramatic image and you can't help but get pulled in by that eye. As it's the main focus of the image (no pun intended) if the focus point was bang on the eye then I would like to see the eye certainly crisper, sharper and with more detail, although at 1/100 unless it was rock steady it might not be quite there, but perhaps it just needs a bit more USM? Also I might be tempted to open up the blacks a bit around the eye, hopefully giving more structure and detail.

    I think Harshads RP certainly gives another option to cropping and I do prefer the cropped LHS. Although the sharpening on the head maybe a tad too much, certainly you can see it has brought out more detail in the flesh on the RHS.

    Therefore Roger it might be worth a quick revisit to open up the eye and add some more selective sharpening as it is a really good image, well seen.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Lifetime Member Marina Scarr's Avatar
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    You had a great idea here, Roger. It is different and intriguing. Agree on the softness in the eye area which is critical but think it can be remedied with some selective sharpening. I agree with removing the portion of the carcass from the LHC b/c it is distracting. I brought the picture into PS and cropped from the left as above but left more of the ears for less of a pano look, and I find it really works.
    Marina Scarr
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    Excellent composition Roger. Very nice idea very well executed.

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    All, thanks for the suggestions. I also didn't like the zebra part on the left hand side but wanted to keep the ears, so here it the new crop. Steve you are right about the eye. The slow shutter speed resulted in the lion moving about a pixel during the 1/100 second exposure. For this repost I did Richardson-Lucy image deconvolution to reduce the slight blur effect and it sharpened up nicely. I reduced the intensity of the white on the zebra carcass and burned the remaining zebra part on the left edge (I won't remove anything). I brightened the eye and reduced the bright fur around the left side of the lion's face (right side in the image) to give better balance. Let me know what you think.

    Some background. This was a very foggy morning on the Serengeti. The image was well before sunrise but bright orange in the east (to the right in the image). I have probably 60 images of the lion in near this position but with both eyes in view. This is the last image in the sequence as the lion's head moved down he gave me one last look then went back to breakfast. Then I moved to mother-cub action to the left. The pride had brought down 2 zebras and everyone was getting full. What an experience. The kill was made in the dark before I arrived. Only one other vehicle was there (part of our 2 vehicle group). Most of my earlier images were at ISO 800 but after 40 to 50 images I moved to 400 for some variation and less noise.

    The original BPN image above was saved at pretty low jpeg quality and impacted IQ. For this one I moved up to 249K and jpeg quality was still only 62% so we'll see how this looks. -- Edit: checked the post and it is OK

    Roger
    Last edited by Roger Clark; 10-27-2011 at 10:25 PM.

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    Ken Watkins
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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Clark View Post
    -- Edit: checked the post and it is OK

    Roger
    Roger,

    It most certainly is

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    Roger,
    You got a lovely scene. Your repost is better. I still use my 1D Mark II for stills and love it. I love its 45 point AF.

    Cheers,
    Sabyasachi

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Lovely out-of-the-box composition here Roger! Love the drama.My immediate impression was that the hair at the crest of the head seems to be sharper than the eye (possibly due to DOF on your combo used - did not run it through DOF calc though)...but your explanation also explains it.

    Repost is a nice improvement...please post some more from your trip!
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Lifetime Member Marina Scarr's Avatar
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    When I see your repost. Roger. I see a photo that is worthy of entering contests. It is unique, powerful and I think it could go far.
    Marina Scarr
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    Lifetime Member Jay Gould's Avatar
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    Roger, RP is very powerful - like most of your comments in various threads!

    Cheers Mate!
    Cheers, Jay

    My Digital Art - "Nature Interpreted" - can now be view at http://www.luvntravlnphotography.com

    "Nature Interpreted" - Photography begins with your mind and eyes, and ends with an image representing your vision and your reality of the captured scene; photography exceeds the camera sensor's limitations. Capturing and Processing landscapes and seascapes allows me to express my vision and reality of Nature.

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