lion head-shot, soon to be printed

I cropped into this shot from a almost full body shot of the lion at the zoo the other day. I really like it a lot and I want to get it printed (sans watermark) soon. My dad says it has the "eyes will follow you everywhere in the room" type of quality to it. I'm seeking community advice on anything that I should attempt to fix in post-processing, anything I can do differently next time I go to the zoo, and/or anything else you have to say about it. Another question: why is it sharper when I view the picture in Lightroom vs uploaded on Flickr? Do I need to do any export sharpening?

Here is the head-shot:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/61875474@N06/5​875275619/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/61875474@N06/5​875834394/

its pretty darn sharp already.
its too bad you couldnt have composed it without the branch to the left of his face though.

Man, what a stare !!!

And have to agree with jhaye on the branch .... a real shame. My eyes went pretty much straight to it. Quite distracting. I'm no PP expert but I wonder if it's possible to take the left side of his head, invert it somehow and plonk it on the other side ??

Matt.

same as above, my eye is taken straight to the branch... crackin picture tho..

Wow, very impressive glance

Mtn Breeze wrote in post #12675260
Man, what a stare !!!

And have to agree with jhaye on the branch .... a real shame. My eyes went pretty much straight to it. Quite distracting. I'm no PP expert but I wonder if it's possible to take the left side of his head, invert it somehow and plonk it on the other side ??

Matt.

That sounds like its got some merit to it. All I have at the moment is Lightroom, though I'm going to look into the inversion idea tonight. I'll probably still get it printed with the branch because I still like it that much.

I'm with everyone else on this, my eyes do go right for the branch, but otherwise, good photo!

Nice shot! Looks like he wanted you for breakfast/lunch/dinner​!

Try flipping a layer, or bring in another renamed file of the same flipped and see if you can make the complete right side his left side too. Re...or his left side be his right side...you know what I mean.

Terrific shot regardless.

EDIT:

Pardon my playing with your photo, but here's a sloppy attempt. It will take some time to tweak.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

If you use Photoshop CS5 you can use the content aware tools and copying from the other side of him to recreate what was there. If you need help with it let me know. Im pretty good at replacing and recovering things like that. If you feel okay sending me the file pm me and ill start it for you and send you the layers.

Very nice shot!

I don't have anything besides Lightroom. I'm trying to pass CS5 off as a school expense for a photo elective I want to take so my parents will buy it.

How complex is the editing for what several people have described? Is it something I could get the hang of in a few days if I download the photoshop trial?

And thanks from everyone who likes the shot.

You might look into getting Elements instead. It's considerably less expensive and is still a very robust software package that does a lot. It is what I used here on your photo.

Photoshop takes time to learn, it depends on your experience with editing programs. If you started on another program then went to PS youd have an easier time. If its your first time using a comprehensive tool like this then youll take time to learn it. I went to college for my BFA in Fine Art and Design and there are entire courses just on Photoshop. Try looking at tutorials on Youtube about CS5.

Also I think that as a student you can get a big discount on Photoshop. http://www.adobe.com …ng/education_pr​icing.html

torvaterra wrote in post #12680528
Photoshop takes time to learn, it depends on your experience with editing programs. If you started on another program then went to PS youd have an easier time. If its your first time using a comprehensive tool like this then youll take time to learn it. I went to college for my BFA in Fine Art and Design and there are entire courses just on Photoshop. Try looking at tutorials on Youtube about CS5.

Also I think that as a student you can get a big discount on Photoshop. http://www.adobe.com …ng/education_pr​icing.html

I can get a massive discount from being a student; only problem is that $450 is still a lot of money for me at the moment. As soon as I can fit the photo elective into my schedule at school then my parents said they would buy CS5 (its required) as it would be a school expense. I'm currently downloading the trial and I'll probably play with the trial of Elements while I'm at it. I am definitely buying Lightroom in a week when my trial ends.