Lion Head - a photo on Flickriver

Lion Head

            Trying to get the perfect shot at a zoo is not always possible but getting an average shot and turning it into something is.

My visits to the zoo, I have kind of worked out places to stand at certain times of the day but I never like to just be rigid in staying in those spots as I feel the best shots come with watching the animals, their expressions and capturing when they do something different or something I haven't seen before...be spontaneous. If all this happens in a sweet spot that is a bonus.

So the original of this shot is actually pretty terrible and has many imperfections, the major one being there are fence lines highlighted by the sun going across Milo's face and body.
He was standing at the den entrance and although I loved his expression I knew by the way the sun was I really wasn't going to get the shot I wanted but I looked at it again and again and created this.

Trust me there is nothing fancy in the way I edit. I have a basic Photoshop program which is years old, I don't cut out or add layers.
I convert to black and white, use a darkening brush to get the background black being careful to go lighter around the mane area. Once I am happy with that I tweak the contrast a little to what I feel looks ok.

For some reason converting to b/w eliminates not completely but eliminates any refection or slight enclosure lines that were in the original. Hence why I have done my zoo series in black and white, because it works at making average shots look better.

Let me know if you can see the original in the comments. Still trying to work out how to do it.

Taken on: March 10, 2018

Tags:

lion

conservation

zoo photography

black and white

edit

big cats

save big cats « less

Sets appears in: • Zoo Animals

Camera: Canon EOS 750D, f/9.0, 1/1600 sec, 300mm, ISO 3200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 750D
Aperture:	f/9.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1600)
Focal Length:	300mm
ISO:	3200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Partial
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Windows
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