Zuka Lioness in Black and White

[Gabriela Plesea]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 9
• NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S
• ƒ/7.1
• 400mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 2000
• GABRIELA PLESEA
• Tue, 05 December 2023 7:52 AM
• ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.1 (Macintosh)

Dear Friends,

I liked this lioness so much that at some stage I felt like drawing her on a piece of paper. Sadly, the result was so poor it would have shamed an infant. Nevertheless that made me spend a great deal of time looking at her features and so began to appreciate, and remember, her identity. I now have no doubt I will recognise her next time we cross paths.

The process of sketching made me ask myself a number of questions, such as 'where was the light coming from?' and 'does one eye seem a tad darker than the other?'. I also noticed a number of scars, counted the dots on her muzzle, and saw there were a few black whiskers among the white ones.

You will say I was bored, but that was not the case. I simply tried to gain a better understanding of the reasons behind my attraction to, and my obsession, with the species. And so I moved from 'I love lions' to 'I love lions because...'.

The image was captured on the 5th of December. Sky was purple and blue after the rain with heaps of heavy clouds in the distance. A bit of misty sunshine.

Do realise it is almost impossible to convey the atmosphere I described in a black and white image, but felt like trying.

Nikon Z9
Nikkor Z 400mm F2.8 TC @ 400mm
ISO 2000
F7.1
1/2000s
+0.33 EV

Thank you so much for your comments on my previous images as well was your time to view - much appreciated.

Kind regards,

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela ... oh she looks gorgeous , almost innocent in this capture :bg3:.
Details and the super sharpness are jumping off right into my face ... easy with the super bokeh you have created . Framing is spot on and no oranges ... where are they , you change your thinking quickly LOL . Interesting to hear that you are trying to portray her on a piece of paper with a pencil .... you must be an artist . I have no talent to do so .... I am just a dumb photographer :bg3:.
Your choice of conversion is quite , if not , very conservative ... I personally would go for more drama in the tones . But I know this is very difficult to achieve if one is not that much familiar with B&W processing .... but you will get for sure a direction how to do so :w3:t3:S3:. My skills are rather limited on that front , not enough experience I think , albeit I do love B&W images when done right .

TFS this nice frame , Gabriela

Cheers Andreas

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you very much for your thoughts, Andreas.

This was a bit of an experiment, as you know I have not done many conversions. Was playing around with this image and then realised it looked quite nice, well certainly better than my drawing...

A bit afraid to push too much, albeit tempted. Do envisage see a more contrasty, more dramatic version. I also see a tad of posterisation in the background which I introduced with my PP work :tinysmile_shy_t:

Yes the 'direction' will come I hope, but in the meantime I keep practising.

Really appreciate your feedback and I find it very encouraging, thank you for kind words!

Hope you have a wonderful week-end and looking forward to some images from you soon,

Kind regards,

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Good morning Gabriela, nice to see you change direction in rendering the image, otherwise it could get yet another image.

Techs look good along with the framing, FF or cropped?

As I said before, if you want to go B/W you have to shooting in B/W because of the tonal range, you will see things differently, hedging your bets on the conversion working, well you might as well .... in the wind! You will still retain the colour version, however, I'm not covering old ground.

I think you could push the whites and HLs to get more range, you will see what I mean. Not sure if there is any posterisation happening?

Overall, the framing, HA, intense look all work.

TFS
Steve

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

A very good morning to you Steve,

And thank you so much for your kind thoughts and suggestions. This is almost FF, cropped just a tiny bit from the bottom and sides, also flipped horizontally.

I understand perfectly what you mean by shooting B/W. Truth is, at the time I felt the colours were so striking (especially sky), the thought of a black and white never occurred to me. The idea of a conversion only came about later because - like you said - it would have been 'yet another lioness image':tinysmile_shy_t:

So let me follow your advice and work on those whites/HL. Regarding posterisation, not 100% sure, will look at the raw maybe it's just the BG (hopefully).

Many thanks once again Steve, I knew you'll come to my rescue:5

Warmest regards,

 

[Steve Kaluski]

The Raw will be fine, it will stem for PP.

I’ll drop you a line which may help in B/W conversion.

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Steve:5

The Raw will be fine, it will stem for PP.

I’ll drop you a line which may help in B/W conversion.

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 9
• NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S
• ƒ/7.1
• 400mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 2000
• GABRIELA PLESEA
• Tue, 05 December 2023 7:52 AM
• ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.1 (Macintosh)

Steve here is another version, more punch but not quite what I had in mind and rather far from what you suggested. I can see more versions coming, just need to think this through for a bit.

It's fun though and feels like the old days when everyone chipped in with comments and RP's... and at the end of every thread one felt one learnt something :tinysmile_shy_t:

Warmest regards,

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela ... I like what you did !!
Has more impact IMHO . Most important thing is the pretty face and its expression .... you amplified it for me , so you have done a good job .

Cheers Andreas

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, it certainly has moved on, for me I would split the two, as I think in some way you have lost a bit of what the OP was carrying. You did interpret quite well what I suggested and hopefully it may help in further conversions.

Certainly with digital it's so much easier, but it's not as fun when creating B/W prints.

Next time if you feel you want to go a bit more 'off piste' and more 'grunge' let me know, albeit I will need to put the grey matter in gear, as there are a few things you need to use within Ps, which you won't have experienced, but is sometimes quite good in Colour conversion too.

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Steve,
Thank you so much for this! Could not wait to hear from you:bg3: as I realised I kind of drifted into a different direction...:tinysmile_shy_t:

Do want to try various things and quite excited to do more conversions, will try find a suitable frame so we can play.

Have a wonderful afternoon and speak soon,

Warmest regards,

Hi Gabriela, it certainly has moved on, for me I would split the two, as I think in some way you have lost a bit of what the OP was carrying. You did interpret quite well what I suggested and hopefully it may help in further conversions.

Certainly with digital it's so much easier, but it's not as fun when creating B/W prints.

Next time if you feel you want to go a bit more 'off piste' and more 'grunge' let me know, albeit I will need to put the grey matter in gear, as there are a few things you need to use within Ps, which you won't have experienced, but is sometimes quite good in Colour conversion too.

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Gabriela ... I like what you did !!
Has more impact IMHO . Most important thing is the pretty face and its expression .... you amplified it for me , so you have done a good job .

Cheers Andreas

Thank you so much Andreas, much appreciated!

Kind regards,

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

:5 .... my pleasure

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot Gabriela, I am a bit late to the party unfortunately rather a stressful few weeks but hopefully things are going to improve.
I am not particularly good at B&W I think mainly because I am not imaginative, in terms of processing I thnik I would veer toward the second version but not quite that far, perhaps a littlle too dark in parts for me.

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Jon,

Many thanks for chipping in with comments, you are never too late and I sincerely hope that all is well on your side and things are improving.

Never thought I was any good at conversions either, but always worth a try. I like to play and experiment although at times a little shy to share on the Forum.

Hopefully I'll have more B/W images, just have to find some suitable frames. And always happy to hear your impressions and critique, much appreciated!

Warmest regards,