I never did finish voting on this challenge, and I'm sorry I missed your picture, being a Leo myself I have a special fascination with lions! Good thing I get the chance to comment on it now!
Colour, Composition and Contrast:
The first two things I notice about this shot are that it is both very contrasty and its in bw. It works in black and white, but I also found myself wondering what it looks like in colour, and whether the golden shades of fur would not add to the royal feeling one gets from the expression on his face.
I like the high contrast, but I'm not fond of the blown out highlights around his mouth. We have lost some of the detail of the fur in those areas.
Compositionally, this totally meets the challenge and is a great idea for it. I like the placement of your subject with his eyes along a thirds line, and his mouth along the other. Those are two great points of interest! Very well done.
Focus and Lighting:
Did you use a zoom lens, or was this a serious crop job? :) I ask because I too would have liked some catch lights in his eyes, and the flash might have helped to eliminate some of the shadows near his eyes, however, it also could have blown out more of his fur..soo..I have no beef with the choice you made in that regard!
As for focus..the shot does seem a little soft around the edges, what made you choose F2.8 as your aperture? I think a great DOF would have suited this picture a bit better, though its not really a prominent problem with this shot given that its a fairly shallow plane, though I miss the fact that the hair and fur around the edges isn't as crisp as it could be!
Great score, and awesome picture! Congratulations. :)
Composition: Nice use of thirds.
Technical: Looks like quite a shallow DOF, making the corners look out of focus? :-/ Really like the monochrome and contrast.
Meets challenge: Yes
Overall impression: Well done.
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don't listen to those people who tell you this is too grainy or contrasty. it looks fantastic like that. very nice image. don't know if it's possible or not (not sure how much zoom was involved) but a fill flash would light this guy's up beautifully. As it stands, they're a little shadowy. This better score well.
I saw this picture somewhere else!! I think it was the same pict. Very nice. I hope it's a zoo picture, or we won't see more of your work :) b/w works well. One of my favourites this week. ~10
very cool photo...almost looks like a painting! i really like that the image is desaturated...it really makes the textures in the fur stand out. wonderful capture of his very expressive face. great work!
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