Wild Dog - B&W portrait

[Russell Johnson]

I have been looking back at some my images from the Khwai area from September. Most of my low angle images were taken when the lighting was a quite harsh.

The dog in this image had been bathing in the Khwai river to cool off from the heat of the afternoon. At this point, the pup was standing in the shade of tree with quite a bright background.

Its naturally dark coat was made darker by the spell in the water.

Conversion to IR was done using Nik Silver Pro. I had also lifted the light around the eyes and used the burn tool to lower the lighter colour above the eye.

Techs:

1D mark IV
70-200 + 1.4
1/1000 @ F7.1


C & C more than welcome.

(I have considered keeping the entire dog dark for a B&W silhouette)

[Morkel Erasmus]

this is very nice Russel...I would not go for an entire silhouette here as the good detail in the face and the stare makes this stand out for me

pity about the tightness at the bottom - would have liked some space for the hidden legs...

[Todd Frost]

I like the idea here but would like to see a little more tonal range in the wild dog. Agree more room at bottom would be nice.
TFS
Todd

[Steve Canuel]

Agree with Morkel on not going full silhouette on this. Might even try to lighten up the inside ears just a touch. Missing feet ok with me, I like the stark contrast between animal and surroundings.

[Marc Mol]

Agree on all the above comments here Russell, the BG light looks to have been extremely harsh and a good decision to try the B&W conv. Love the intense stare.
TFS

[Russell Johnson]

Thanks guys....

I had a look back through the RAW files after your comments.....bonus.

Have found an image with 'feet in' plus a nice catch light in one of the eyes.

Will re-post tomorrow.

[DanWalters]

Almost looks surreal. Like the little bit of detail in the subject. Agree about a little more space on the bottom.

[Russell Johnson]

The same techs, though on this one I had zoomed out just a little more. Also the benefit of having a small catch light coming through the trees.

In terms of PP, I also did some dodging on the background to blend in some of the grasses.

http://www.thesafariphotographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/T8C5754.jpg

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Russell, like this shot, strong intense stare and good eye-contact. Quite an unusual shot, but it works for me because of the strong shape of the dog and it's ears.
Looking forward to more
Grant

[Russell Johnson]

Hi Russell, like this shot, strong intense stare and good eye-contact. Quite an unusual shot, but it works for me because of the strong shape of the dog and it's ears.
Looking forward to more
Grant

Thanks, Grant. Khwai proved very productive during our 5 days there.