Lone Lioness

deanlewis · Jun 4, 2007

Taken in Tsavo east national park, Kenya, in the early morning light.

Deano

Peniole · Jun 4, 2007

Nice capture, sharp details, it would benefit from a small contrast increase.

cigrainger · Jun 4, 2007

It seems every shot on this forum would benefit from a contrast increase. And usually saturation too. Seems things aren't good enough until they're neon with no midtones.

I like the shot as is. I like the natural colors, great early morning lighting, being in mid-step, and a deep enough DOF to keep things sharp but show some blurring further back.

Thumbs up.

Peniole · Jun 4, 2007

cigrainger said:
It seems every shot on this forum would benefit from a contrast increase. And usually saturation too. Seems things aren't good enough until they're neon with no midtones.

Haha funny

, that does seem to be the case on this website now that you mention it. Since I haven't been here long enough, I wouldn't know, hence, it was an honest suggestion, and I'm talking small increase (like 5-10 on a +100 scale mind you) nothing that would kill the midtones.

cigrainger · Jun 4, 2007

Peniole said:
Haha funny , that does seem to be the case on this website now that you mention it. Since I haven't been here long enough, I wouldn't know, hence, it was an honest suggestion.

That's cool. I wasn't really making fun of you, just the trend that seems to be happening. I think it's because so many people can now be "photographers" if they have the money for the latest and greatest dSLRs regardless of photographic knowledge, and access to photoshop to bump contrast and saturation on every shot, and HDR every other one, including portraits of grandma. Seems the actual content of the shot and its composition is falling behind unnatural sharpness, contrast, and color in importance around here.

Either way, I like the content of this shot. Maybe a very slight contrast boost would help, but it looks nice and natural to me as is. :thumbup: Honestly things that minute can come down to like, the quality of your monitor, and obviously just personal taste. Sorry if I pigeon-holed you into the group I was making fun of.

Peniole · Jun 4, 2007

Don't worry about it, no apology necessary. I noticed the winky

I generally don't post process my shots unless something is really bugging me about them. I've noticed people like to sharpen even portraits around here, I thought they were supposed to be be a little soft.

Antarctican · Jun 4, 2007

I love the lighting in this one. And you really get a sense of the grace, speed and strength they have, just from the way the lioness is sauntering along with no fear.

I take it you were on a safari for this? Isn't it amazing how the lions have the whole Savannah to themselves, yet they'll come right up to the wheeltracks that the safari vehicles use?

neogfx · Jun 4, 2007

Because of the lighting on this I don't feel it needs a contrast boost at all, I think its really nice as is.
I don't think that anyone with a DSLR can be a photographer either, I've got one, so maybe I should drop out of my photography degree at university? I don't need that if I have a DSLR right?
I do agree that way too many people rely on post processing these days, but it was the same with film, you can still adjust contrast and tones etc with film images.
The greatest quote I ever heard was "The most expensive camera in the world is not going to tell you where you should be pointing it"
Composition and exposure is the major part of photography.

Peniole · Jun 4, 2007

cigrainger said:
Honestly things that minute can come down to like, the quality of your monitor, and obviously just personal taste.

You're right, on this computer, it doesn't seem like it needs more contrast even though the other computer is newer with a far superior monitor and as far as I know is properly calibrated.

neogfx said:
I've got one, so maybe I should drop out of my photography degree at university? I don't need that if I have a DSLR right?

I think he was being sarcastic, he put "photographer" in quotations.

I have a question for the OP, which programme did you use to crop/resize that the image retained the EXIF data, camera model, and focal length? Whenever I do anything in photoshop it cuts out all that.

William · Jun 4, 2007

Great depth of field! Also the lighting is perfect. The sidelighting makes this shot uber dramatic and gives it great volume. This is an amazing capture and it looks very real; unedited. [Don't increase the contrast] i like it the way it is.

neogfx · Jun 5, 2007

Peniole said:
I have a question for the OP, which programme did you use to crop/resize that the image retained the EXIF data, camera model, and focal length? Whenever I do anything in photoshop it cuts out all that.

If you have CS2 it retains the data after you crop or edit an image.