Female Lion

[sabbath999]

EXIF: D300, 70-200 VR, 1/100, f/13, ISO 800, 160mm

It was extremely overcast, I was shooting handheld (as always) giving the old VR on the 70-200 a real workout. I wanted all the leaves relatively in focus, which meant a high ISO and slow shutter speed which I could do with the VR and with her basically just sitting still.

Focus point was, as usual, the eyes.

 

[Arch]

Lovely shot Sabbath, The conditions didn't look great! I think you did very well with the exposure under the circumstances but i just thought i'd show you this little trick.
When its overcast the fist thing to happen to the wb apart from loosing saturation, is often whites will contain too much cyan (like in the nose fur), making the image look a little cold.

So all i'v done here is to open up a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, change the drop down menu to Cyan and completely desaturate it... you will notice the whites return to a cleaner shade. You can then selectively tweek a few of the others.. i added a bit more yellow and a fraction more red. I also resharpened with the smart sharpen filter (this may only need to be done for web viewing as the full res is probably sharper). Hope this helps.

 

[sabbath999]

Yes, excellent improvement, thanks! I will look at doing that... was struggling with getting the whites right all day with the heavy overcast, so I just switched to RAW and I am not as good at processing RAW as I should be. This one was shot before I switched over, though, it was JPEG Fine (which I normally shoot).

Your version is a big improvement.

I didn't re-sharpen the web version, the high res version is indeed sharper... I need to remember to re-sharpen after I resize.

 

[TwoRails]

Good posts! This is exactly one of the things someone like me needs to see! Very informative: Thanks! -- and I like the shot, too

 

[jv08]

Nice shot! Well done.

 

[Flower Child]

i really love ALL of your animal shots. are you a pro?-- cause you are very talented

 

[sabbath999]

i really love ALL of your animal shots. are you a pro?-- cause you are very talented

Thanks. Nope, not a pro... this is one of my personal projects (the only one that I have up online).

 

[Overread]

You know what really grabs me with this shot?
The paws - her markings mean you can clearly see each finger on the paw.
Out of interest was this shot through bars or glass?

Really liking you catshots -

 

[sabbath999]

Nope, no glass between her and me... she could have eaten me if she wanted

 

[Overread]

you were in the pen!?

 

[sabbath999]

you were in the pen!?

Naw, I was joking... the lion was on a hill, that goes down sharply into a moat. I was on a platform a little (but not much) above it... it couldn't eat me.

 

[Overread]

cats can swim