Two face

This was a special picture for me as it was something I had been wanting to achieve for some time but hadn't seen a young male lion in this type of setting for some time. This male is part of a trio coalition who we found on a buffalo kill thanks to a large clan of hyenas giving away their presence. It was a coalition I had never seen before - nomads in a territory left vacant by the Charleston males. This alone brings with it a presence of remaining undetected, being hidden from sight before disappearing as if they weren't even there.

This is why I felt that this image would work better if a young male lion was the subject. The image would epitomise its character and nature in a time when young lions are on a journey of discovery. The juxtaposition of the confidence due to direct eye contact softened by the remainder of its face hidden behind the tree also bringing in the vulnerability of being in an unknown area. This why I called the image “Two Face”.

Equipment used

• Camera – Nikon D4S
• Lens and Focal length – Nikkor 200mm-400mm VRII @ 400mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO 4000 – With slightly misty overcast conditions, this ISO on my camera body would allow enough sharpness and texture on the lion’s face. Anything more than this I would have to use some post noise reduction to get rid of the grain in the background.
• Aperture f/(6.3) – The focal point needed to be the eye, but I wanted enough sharpness in the nose as well as a defocused background- F6.3 I felt, gave me all of the above.
• Shutter 1/640 – This speed would be more than fast enough to freeze the image.

Editing used on this image

Shooting in RAW allows for editing without degrading the initial image, unlike compression in JPEG. I usually rely on my camera’s auto white balance to get it right and it more than often does. In this instance, the image lacked a little warm colour so I increased the WB from 4900 to 5333. Overcast conditions can make an image seem a little flat so I increased the contrast slider bringing out the blacks and improving the saturation. Clarity is a slider I often use but only increased this slightly as I didn't want to affect the blurred background which caused the lion’s profile to stick out. A little post vignetting darkening the edges added a little texture to the tree in front. Once again - little tweaks retaining the true elements of the image.