Steve Long
April 2026 - A Cool Drink of Water
About the Image(s)
Another image from my recent safari is also demonstrating the drop-down technique. This shows the lion after drinking from a mud puddle.
13 comments posted
Great capture, Steve! Love the framing, the sharpness and the frozen water drops. Focal length and shutter speed? Did you dehaze in the sky? There is a slight halo around the lion and the trees which is something I always fight when applying filters to the sky. Posted: 04/05/2026 17:10:03
Yes, I see that now... too much dehaze. I will try to rework the image. Thanks Posted: 04/13/2026 16:48:42
The sky is not as dramatic but at least I no longer have a halo around the lion Posted: 04/14/2026 18:33:38
I think the lion is so impressive that it will take all the attention so this is just about fussy details. :)
I took your original post and un-dehazed the sky enough to pass. I used a curves adjustment layer with a mask to darken the area around the lion but it didn't need much.
Once discovery I made was that the banding that AnnMarie saw looks to be a function of the JPG compression. Because the pixel dimensions were big (5419x4258), it took a 0 quality setting in the JPG save dialog. This caused banding big time. I reduced the file to 2000 px on the long edge and got away with a 9 quality setting and no banding. Posted: 04/14/2026 20:03:45
I took your original post and un-dehazed the sky enough to pass. I used a curves adjustment layer with a mask to darken the area around the lion but it didn't need much.
Once discovery I made was that the banding that AnnMarie saw looks to be a function of the JPG compression. Because the pixel dimensions were big (5419x4258), it took a 0 quality setting in the JPG save dialog. This caused banding big time. I reduced the file to 2000 px on the long edge and got away with a 9 quality setting and no banding. Posted: 04/14/2026 20:03:45
Yes, the banding is a result of the small file size required by PSA. The original does not show banding. Posted: 04/14/2026 20:07:38
Oh wow... you really captured this old warrior well, love the water droplets and the far away look in his eyes.* little bit of banding in the sky, like Michael said might be from dehazing or sharpening? Posted: 04/06/2026 05:49:23
I assume too much dehaze. Posted: 04/13/2026 16:49:10
Great capture Steve Posted: 04/07/2026 16:37:48
Thanks!
Posted: 04/13/2026 16:49:26
Posted: 04/13/2026 16:49:26
Hi Steve, What a lovely capture how far where you for this picture? getting the lion in the frame standing tall just wow Posted: 04/08/2026 07:01:32
We were close... about 20 feet. This was shot at 70mm Posted: 04/13/2026 16:52:59
Powerful! It is a great image. Posted: 04/09/2026 14:48:50
Thanks Posted: 04/13/2026 16:53:12