Olive Baboon

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi All,
My first image from my recent trip to Kenya for Migration Safari Aug 3-10, 2013. Found this Olive Baboon in Lake Nakuru Lodge coming straight at me! I had the 1.4 TC on the 500 II & 5D3. So took a portrait! In AI Servo mode.
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Camera
Canon EOS 5D Mark III (http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/eos_5d_mark_iii/)


Exposure
(1/640)


Aperture
f/5.6


Focal Length
700 mm


ISO Speed
800


Exposure Bias
+1/3 EV

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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, glad you had a good trip and things worked out well for you. :w3

Overall I fell you needed more DOF to get the sharpness from eyes to nose IMHO, but obviously you would then need to juggle with you ISO to retain the SS required. With the 5D you could have easily done this as high ISO is not an issue. I would go for a square crop as the dead space to the RHS doesn't really work unless it was used for a double page spread (DPS) in a magazine etc. I think a portrait/vertical format would have been better, likewise to have used the 70-200 with the 1.4x to then have shot the whole body rather than just the head, but I guess it's what you felt you wanted to capture. saying that you do have a killer BKG. :S3:

On the laptop the image looks 'thin' a bit light, therefore try adding a Luminosity mask, then a mid tone curves, you may then need to adjust the Red, Blue & Magenta via a Saturation adjustment, finally a bit more sharpening IMHO. Working on the laptop is never ideal, however I trust some of the advice may help if you choose to revisit the RAW. Look forward to more from the trip.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - welcome back and you are off to a nice start. My first thought also was that you needed more dof for this image to really work so that the whole head is sharp and in focus from the tip of the nose. Finally, as always Steve has given you some great suggestions for improving the image.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Agree with more DOF, but could not forfeit more on SS. Personally I found shining blacks very difficult to expose correctly. BTW, why+0,3? Think Steve's crop work.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice head-on here Sanjeev. Steve's repost is a good call on crop and contrast...I do still see some latent magenta lingering on the face and fur?
Looking forward to seeing more of your migration images - I am headed up there in about 3 weeks for my stint! :5

[Stan Cunningham]

Either crop to me is fine, but the luminosity mask really helped I IMO.

[Loi Nguyen]

Sanjeev, welcome back. Baboon is a difficult subject I find and you had a straight head on with a killer BG. Wish that you had a wider shot, but that already mentioned. I find the dead space on the OP not working for me. I like the contrast in Steve's RP, but find the image is too symmetric and the good eye contact in the OP was lost. So I went for a different crop and used quick mask to lift the shadow under the eye in Steve's RP just a fraction. Hope you like it. Loi

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Sanjeev,
I like the portrait and the suggested tweaks will take this up a notch.

[Gregor Bergquist]

Nice portrait! I like Lois repost and comp, but would like to keep the light background you have in the OP.

TFS / Gregor