The Eye Has It

[Rachel Hollander]

As some of you may recall I had experimented with an image emphasizing an elephant's eye on my last Africa trip in 2014: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/131362-Elephant-Eye?highlight=elephant+eye Well, I decided to try it again on this trip but was a bit closer and from a different angle. I was happy to catch the bit of color in the eye and also wanted to emphasize those amazing long lashes. I also have a b&w version that I will likely share at some point.

Canon 7DII
100-400 II @ 400mm
1/500
f9
ISO 800
HH from safari vehicle, slight crop for comp, levels, curves, color adjustments, selectively sharpened in PSCC.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season and a happy and healthy 2017 with great light and photo opportunities! Thanks for all your participation, support and critiques in 2016.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Stuart Philpott]

Hey Rache,merry xmas kiddo have the most wonderful new year:5. Mate is it a young ele? Rachel the DOF is very interesting for me here, I like your use of it just wondered if one could have gone further. The mosiac of skin folds that surround the eye are really interesting Rachel ,they lean me towards wanting to see more detail in the rear ones. I really like this Rachel,tis not only your thoughtful approach in trying to capture the "soul " of him /her,in the eye but the angle.
Unusual this Rache eyelashes are fundamantally the star of the show,the way the skin tones/textures sit against that and of course your execution make this a winner for me.I like the colours too mate,it'll be cool to see the B&W version frankly I think i'll prefer this but am open minded.lovely work Rachel

take care thanks for everything help wise Rachel, hope you get your dream shots next year

Stu

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel i think you got what you were after .....:w3.... nice work and well seen !!!
I like the small DOF and the overall comp with nice details and stunning eye lashes .... wonder if some woman like to have those :bg3:
AS a personal pref i might give some more tonal depth to the image .....
Lovely image !!!
TFS Andreas

[keith mitchell]

Rachel I think you have achieved exactly what you wanted,those lashes and just a glimpse of the eye and lovely skin texture,do like this.

Keith.
Happy New Year:cheers:

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Rachel, those are amazing eye lashes. I like the composition and having a little bit of color in the eye was great. Would like to have more.

As for the DOF, I'd like to see more on the texture on the left, although not sure it it is possible.

Loi

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- I liked this one . Loved those eye lashes and a bit of colour in the eye makes it an interesting element in the otherwise monotonous frame. This works for me .

TFS !

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice one Rachel - loving those lashes.
Knowing how precarious DOF is at close range with eles, I think you could have gone f11 for just a hint more? You had the ISO and SS?

[Rachel Hollander]

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. As always, they are very much appreciated.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I find the angle more interesting than perhaps the more predictable side on one, so the eye is more visible, likewise the 'colour', therefore I'm in a quandary as to whether it's working or not. Commercially it doesn't, but as it's a personal image it does for you and that's what matters. Being so close illustrates well how the DoF tails off so quickly, and so you may have found f/16 or even more might have worked better for more FG, as I find your eye is drawn more to that as it covers a larger area and more dominant. But then it's the 7D which does not like the ISO being pushed to high, so you are limited/restricted in how far you can go I feel. Agree with Andreas that a bit more Tonal value would help in the mid tones to bring out more texture/detail.

TFS
Steve