Shadows and Light

[Rachel Hollander]

I was inspired by a b&w portrait I saw on a website but had to look through my files for the right image. It needed to be one where the sun was hitting one of the eyes. I went back to images from my 2012 trip to Namibia and South Africa. This was one of the mother leopard, Nthombi, in the tree when she stopped feeding on the kill for a moment and the late afternoon light hit her eye through the canopy. I know this won't be everyone's cuppa (as Morkel would say).

Canon 5D3
100-400 @ 340mm
1/1250
f5.6
ISO 800
EC +.33
HH from safari vehicle, cropped to vertical, converted in Nik Silver Efex, levels, curves, selective color, cloned bits in lower corners (since this is more of an art shot), sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Oh Rachel, this is my cuppa!

Love the play with dark and light, and those eyes, it is all in the eye!

IMHO would slice a sliver of the top…

Curiosity/ intense interest...

Love it:5

[Gabriela Plesea]

I LOVE THIS Rachel! Mysterious and dark and possibly evil:w3. The hunter. Secretive as only a leopard can be, and a wanderer through the woods...A creature of a fiery heart?

Impressive PP work, Rachel!

Techs? I like everything. Including that tiny moist spot on the nose.

My cuppa tea, and it's sweet...I am very pleased to see something so different and so fresh from you, this truly stirs my imagination tonight and I am going to sleep with thoughts of this leopard in the darkness, imagining the faint rustle of leaves beneath its feet, the tense silence during a game of hide-and-seek, a leopard on the prowl, somewhere here in Africa...

Good night Rachel...

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi rachel , i am surprised ..........
That heavy blacks ...... but i like it . The eye is stunning . Nice job all around .

TFS Andreas

[Edward Arthur]

It's my cuppa for sure. Love the catchlight in the eye and the fine hairs in the shadows below. And of course that intense stare. The specular thingies on the nose could go, IMO.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andre, Gabriela, Andreas and Ed for the kind comments. I'm glad you like it.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, worth the punt, but it's not my cup of tea, it's just too Dark & Black and I feel it doesn't add much for me and takes away from the original capture, but we all see things differently. :S3:

cheers
Steve

[Anette Mossbacher]

Sent you my take on this, and have to add, I would even push more the brighter lights in this and maybe contrast more :w3

[Gregor Bergquist]

Åh, it is great. Fore sure my cuppa. I like the shadow play and agree with Anette that you could try it even a bit more. I have been a bit surprised that dark shadows have been seen a bit negativ on this forum. I think it is beautiful and add drama to pictures. I get it that natural looking pictures is preferred, and know that people talk about not loosing details in shadows and highlights. But for me that is something else. Like in the picture details is where it is needed, and the dark black adds to the picture where it is.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve, Anette and Gregor. I appreciate all the differing views.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I really like this, Rachel. I'd go a tad lighter in the whites and perhaps a tad lighter in the blacks overall, without losing this feel?