Night Monkeys -- In the Morning

[Linda Dulak]

On our recent boat trip on the Peruvian Amazon, we took a pre-breakfast cruise on the skiffs to one of the nearby tributaries. There the guides found a group of night monkeys in the top of a tree. This seemed to be their daytime nest and as we were the second skiff to get into position for some looks, the 3 came out of the top of the tree (another was in a hole in the tree further down). It was very dark under the canopy but with bright sky showing through the leaves in several places. So, it took some effort to try to get the right exposure, even with the flash. I would have liked all of them to have their eyes open, but it was, after all, WAY past their bed time.

D7000, ISO 1600, f8, 1/60, 80-400 @ 400, SB800 flash with Better Beamer
Post processing: Cropping, cloning out bits of sky and specular highlights, levels, mild Topaz Denoise and sharpening.

Comments welcome.

Linda

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Linda, well this is certainly something different to what we normally see, so thanks for posting.

Regarding the image, the first noticeable issue is the SS giving a soft look, with no real definition or clarity to the image. Rarely do I use a flash, although I have recently, but I think the power is too strong and certainly would worry about using one with these little guys and there sensitivity to bright light. I think having one monkey with his/hers eyes open, the other two closed does tell a story and rather nice, compared to all being open. The BKG doesn't look right and does illustrate some work done, plus if you used some NR then it's a little too strong as it's blurred/flattened the BKG allowing no 'texture' to come through if you know what I mean. I would assume the BKG might also be a little darker too? What I might suggest to help the BKG is to look at a square cop tight in, you get the FG part of the tree and the three monkeys, with little of the cluttered BKG. I might also look at toning down the exposure too. Not sure how much more detail you can get out of the faces, but some adjustments in Curves might give some more definition/form to the faces.

Hope others will chip in too.

TFS
Steve

[Steve Canuel]

Cute little guys. Looks like they had a good time the night before, still have smiles on their faces :S3:. Maybe a little desat/darkening of the green in the BG and a touch of sharpening on the faces for me.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Having the one with open eyes makes the shot in terms of the story being told.
I am in complete agreement with Steve's thorough critique above. As always he has accompanied that with some sound suggestions for improvement. Can't add much other than saying this is cute!

[Linda Dulak]

Thanks guys for the critique. I like the idea of the square crop as it does increase the attention on the monkeys. Steve, I tried to get a shot without flash but it was so dark that even at 1600 ISO I couldn't get anything sharp. And with the D7000 I'd never gone to that ISO before. Add to that a skiff with 12 or so people moving around and it was a very challenging shot. In fact, I've never encountered anything so challenging as on this trip. Once could be looking up under the canopy with heavy vegetation behind a bird or animal and then suddenly it might show up on a limb in a clearing with bright sky behind. And around the bend you might be looking at a subject in bright sunlight and suddenly find another subject under the vegetation close to shore wading in the shadows in the water. It was a constant challenge to adjust the settings to get a well exposed shot. Still it was an amazing trip and seeing these little guys (about 4-5 lbs) was a highlight. I'll do some experimenting with curves to get more definition in the faces before I print it.

Thanks all and glad you enjoyed the change of pace in this forum.

Linda

[PhilCook]

Concur with Steve, and confirm a square crop would go well in this image. I'm impressed you got this image at all considering the adverse condition in a skiff.

Cute little monkeys, though the two on the left look constipated hehehehehe

[Rachel Hollander]

Linda - sounds like tough conditions and you did well to get the shot. Great suggestions above for improving it in PP. Nice to see something so different.

TFS,
Rachel