The King of Beasts in Sepia

By Jim Zuckerman

Even though I don’t like carrying a laptop with me when I travel – it’s one more vulnerable and expensive thing that I have to worry about – it affords me the ability to be creative with Photoshop when I’m not shooting. 

The photo of the magnificent black maned lion you see below looked good in the original color, but I wanted to do something more akin to fine art with it.  Using Photoshop, I cloned out a female lion that was behind the male and out of focus, and then I used Image > mode > grayscale to convert the color to black and white.  I then used Image > mode > duotone and added a sepia tone to the photo, and finally I darkened the landscape so all of the focus was on the lion.  As a final touch, I used Levels to adjust the contrast to make the cat's face really pop. 

I haven’t used this treatment with my wildlife images in the past, but I like the result so much that I want to produce a whole new series of images using this kind of look. 

Comments

[Kiril Kirkov]

Hi Jim,
Such an amazing portrait! The sepia technique looks perfect here ! Very creative vision. Since my dream is to explore the wildlife with my camera , I'm happy to learn from your experience ! By the way my flight to Seattle will be December 10th . I will join your "making money" course in January. I'm keeping my hopes to meet you soon after my arriving.
Regards from Sofia,
Kiril

[Jim Zuckerman]

Thanks, Kiril. If you make it to Nashville, TN you have a place to stay. I hope we can meet.

Jim

[Jeanne Dill]

Jim,

This is so beautiful!! I am always attracted to black and white with a touch of color and the soft sepia transforms this image. I am so glad I began class with you this session!! Only three lessons in and I've really gotten big bangs for my buck already. I was on a plane yesterday, "Wed" and could hardly wait to open my email to see the next assignment.

Jeanne

[Jim Zuckerman]

Thanks very much, Jeanne. I love this picture also. I'm glad you are enjoying the course so much.

Jim