Theme: Bonnet Macaque

[Colin Driscoll]

I spent some of new year's day 2014 sitting near a group of these most entertaing monkeys at Kabini River Resort, Karnataka, India.
5D3 100-400 @300 f5.6 1/250 iso320

Edit: Saving for web has increased contrast so some of the subtle shading is lost- advice?

[Loi Nguyen]

Ho Colin. I like the creamy tone and the sharpness of this image, but wish to have more of the monkey on the LHS. Do you have more room there? Loi

[Don Railton]

Hi Colin

Interesting hair do..!! Especially the way the sun has caught it.. I am an admitted beginner in B&W so my advice you should take with a grain of salt. However i feel that the fur behind the ear over to the LH edge has lost a lot of detail which I think may have been lost at the conversion to B&W, (or maybe this is the area you refer to in you post??) Either way this image IMHO would improve by selectively increasing contrast and detail in that area. My latest toy in PS is an Exposure/offset/gamma layer, maybe that might help? The fur on the leg and the sharpness there is wonderful.. Pity you have a hot spot on the chest and I agree with Loi hat a little more of the LHS would be nice if you had it...

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Colin - I'm not aware of saving for web altering the contrast. How do you save for web? Can you also please tell us what program you used for the conversion? Unfortunately, as is, it's not really working for me. While you've got good detail in places, others look too recovered and the spot on the chest is lacking detail. I wish that the illuminated spot was hitting where he is looking, on the knee rather than the arm. I also wish for more on the lhs. Perhaps post the straight out of camera image and we can give suggestions for processing. Sorry, just my opinion.

TFS,
Rachel

[Colin Driscoll]

Oh well it was my first attempt at B & W so I can only improve. Please, no need for apologies! All done in PS6 including saving for web.
Here's the whole animal straight from the raw file, no pp, so have a play!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Colin, overall the image looks dark, a tricky one, but personally I would have exposed for the subject and worried about the 'environment later, as lightening he image will only increase any noise. Again, upping the ISO on the 5 isn't an issue and would have meant more SS & a tad more DoF. The OP appears to have blown some of the whites not present the original. I would perhaps look at a square or at least lose some of the space at the bottom of the OP. Never have had any loss in Saving for Web, so seems a little odd IMHO.


Here's the whole animal straight from the raw file, no pp, so have a play!

Colin, with very limited info within the posted file it's hard to get something to reflect working with the RAW, but just some simple balancing within the Exp, highlights, shadows etc how about something like this. Loosing a bit off the LHS to helps IMHO.

TFS
Steve

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for taking the time Steve, appreciated.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Colin - Steve beat me to it and did a nice job. Having the whole animal is definitely preferable to your op in terms of comp.

Rachel