Zebra Eye

[Hilary Hann]

Ngorongoro Crater. I have a version of this with a decrease in brightness but it accentuates the shadows and makes the zebra look a little muddier than I want and I quite like the higher contrast. Not convinced though.

7D; 300mm + 1.4; ISO200; 1/250 @ f9

[Rachel Hollander]

Hilary - I rather like the high contrast and the zebra stripes as the bg. The detail in the hair and the lashes is amazing. Are the swirls in the eye a reflection? This works very well for me.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, well this is certainly different and I do feel it does stop you in your tracks to view.

Did you deliberately go 'high contrast' for the Zebra, with a 'low contrast' for the BKG? I do like the close-up as it not only gives you the detail of the eye, but also the texture of the cost. Personally I think you could crop a little off the LHS, as both FG & BKG see to be balanced and therefore cropping some from the LHS may bring even more prominence to the close-up?

TFS
Steve

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Steve and Rachel for your feedback. Rachel, I wonder if the eye swirls are part of the eye itself rather than a reflection but I can't be certain.

Steve, I was shooting zebra eyes to get a particular composition which I didn't get in the end (zebra's not always doing what I asked!), so this was one of the failures in that regard. I didn't process for a difference in contrast, this was more due to the distance between the background zebra and the one whose eye is shown and a slight increase in contrast due to specifically sharpening only the foreground zebra. But if it hadn't worked out that way, I would have processed it for low background contrast as I think it works better. I see your point on the crop, however I quite wanted to show the diagonal line of the zebra's head through the centre with the eye in the top right hand third, but like all these things it can be subjective and I am always thankful for alternative suggestions.

[dankearl]

I think the photo would be very nice with a bland mono BG.
It doesn't work for me with the banded oof BG that competes with the subject.
The eyelashes are nice.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like this loads, Hilary...great thinking and image design here. I would be tempted to go even higher with contrast here, but not sure if you can retain as much detail that way?
Crop is fine for me.
If you don't boost contrast I would adjust blacks by about 3-4 points on the RHS of the eye as viewed and in the BG.
:S3:

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Morkel, I had tried more contrast as I felt it needed it for design reasons but the loss of detail was not what I wanted. Perhaps there is another way to process it that I haven't mastered (I'm sure there is!), but I will try adding the black as you suggest and that may satisfy the niggling doubts I have about the processing. :S3:

[Sid Garige]

I am with you on the comp Hillary. Great out of box intimate portrait. Love it.

[Jamie Douglas]

Cool comp Hilary and I agree with Morkel that this could be enhanced by increasing the contrast.

Jamie

[Andreas Liedmann]

Very interesting and powerful composition, nicely processed with good detail and sharpness, would not change a thing.

Congrats Hillary.

TFS Andreas

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Sid, Jamie and Andreas.