Zebra,portrait

[peter delaney]

Nikon D3S 200-400mm iso 640 f4 1/800

[Don Railton]

Hi Peter

I love these portraits you have been posting, very arty.. My suggestion/observation with this is that the bright background overpoweres my contact with the Zebra 's eye and I think that connection is very important to maintain. I would suggest that you lighten the eye a little more or back off the background so to allow that connection to be made again...

DON

[Gabriela Plesea]

I do not remember when I liked a square crop so much, it really works for this image. Like Don said above, it is very arty, to me the B/W conversion makes it very dramatic. I have thought about Don's suggestion regarding the eye -one the one hand I would like to lighten the eye so it becomes more visible, on the other, I am wondering if doing so won't make the eye look unnatural, or stand out too much. The impact this photograph has is based on contrast, a brownish eye might actually spoil this effect? Looking forward to more opinions on this topic...Stunning image, Peter!

Kind regards

Gabriela

[edwardselfe]

Nice sharp image. I think I agree with Don about the background. I find my eye tracing around the border between the zebra and the background, rather than looking at the zebra. However, when my eye settles on the subject, it's very pleasing. Perhaps you have posted one in the past (I see from Don's post that this is not the first of this kind of image that you've posted) but I wonder how a face-on zebra would look with this conversion? Perhaps with both eyes, it might have more impact....
I find Zebras are a very difficult photo subject (and I have plenty of them around!) but this has inspired me to try again.
Thanks!
Ed

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Peter - I like this one a lot. I'm ok with the eye as is but I am finding my eye drawn to the ear and mane a bit because of the sharpness and detail there, you might consider softening it slightly. The conversion and contrast work really well for me here. I can definitely see this as an eye catching big print.

TFS,
Rachel

[Nancy Bell]

For me, the zebra is the perfect animal to portray as a graphic black & white image. I have several of my own hanging on my walls! I like this just as it is. The design of the stripes on the face highlight the eye enough for me.

[dankearl]

I like the comp.
I would make the blacks more black, eliminate the white specks and darken the photo a bit.