An eye between the stripes

[Thinus Schoeman]

I was in two minds about uploading this image, firstly because the cattle egret is so dominant in the image, and this in a wildlife forum, and secondly because birds seldom make good subjects for monochrome conversions.

For me though, it is the zebra in the image, in combination with the egret, that I really like. It is also because of the important part that the zebra plays in the image that I decided to go ahead and upload this as a theme entry.

If however the moderators feel the image doesn't qualify for the theme, I will gladly remove it.

Now more about the image. I visited my local nature reserve last weekend and came across this lone zebra with the egret as companion. I noticed the zebra looking back and quickly moved my vehicle a yard or two forward to get in line for the view as captured in the image.

For me the the turned head of zebra and the prominent eye are what make the image special for me.

Camera Model Canon EOS 70D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/1000
Av(Aperture Value) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 800
Lens EF400mm f/5.6L USM
AF Mode AI Servo AF

Basic editing and monochrome conversion done in LR5, before adding a bit of canvas at the top in PS Elements 12. Sharpening and noise reduction done in Camera RAW.

I have along way to go before i will feel comfortable with my post processing skills, so any advice will be welcomed.

Critique and comments welcome please, and thanks for looking.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Thinus, I've moved it to ETL for you as per your discussion with Rachel, plus I think you need to edit some text as it was originally for Wildlife?

Steve

[Iain Barker]

Hi Thinus

I quite like your image and I can see your thinking when converting to B&W as the subjects would be mostly B&W anyway. The Zebra makes a different perch to the branches we usually see and I do like the zebras head. I wonder if the bird should be more white and if there is more detail to be brought out on the head. I would be nice to see the original colour image as well to see if converting to B&W improved the image.

TFS
Iain

[Diane Miller]

I think Wildlife's loss is our gain -- I love this image!! The two looks are just wonderful! Great seeing! Don't have time to pull it to look at the histogram but it might profit from a little higher exposure. Is there just a little more room on the right? The ear is crowding the edge of the frame a little.

B/W conversions are always worth careful evaluation of the different tonal values -- I assume you had a look at that. The HSL panel gives you B/W Mix sliders. It is possible to go to far there and in PS's B/W conversion, allowing some odd tonal transitions. I find Nik's Silver Efex keeps tonal transitions under better control.

Once it's tweaked to your satisfaction I'd suggest you remove the tiny bit of white along the bottom edge and frame it!! It is very unique.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Thinus, compositionally I find the stare of the zebra behind rather distraction/busy as your eye is drawn to this rather than the main subject, the egret, but just my take. I would have preferred to have the image as a standalone, still using the FG zebra as the 'perch', but a hint more showing and then only the zebra. I would also prefer a slightly lighter 'grey' however it still works to separate the egret. Visually you can see the muzzle of the rear zebra 'choked', this is where you need to open the exposure up to bring some more definition out, but in doing so you will/can highlight noise, this is where checking your cameras histogram is key, forget the LCD that is only for composition, do not use it for exposure. You want (where possible) to have an even spread without clipping the blacks or whites. You can achieve at lot within your RAW conveyer (LR5.3) then to export to PS where you have a lot of options like Curves, Channels, Layers to target key areas to 'build' your image. Finally adding some selective USM will then pull out more detail.

Thinus, I'm away building on hopefully, a new project so working remotely, however hopefully the attached and the above reply will help you move this on.

TFS
Steve

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Thinus it's a great pic but IMO your main character must be in focus, which in this case is the bird. So the only other 'home' for it might be 'Avian' but not Wildlife. Had you taken it with a narrower aperture in order to have the Zebra in focus too, it would have bee a totally different matter. Nice photo, regardless...

[Doug West]

The only thing I can say is, I think with the right processing, this will be a fantastic
image (its already great just the way it is now).

With the zebra looking over it's shoulder to see what's on it and with the Egret looking
toward the camera? Man, that's just classic.

I remember a few years ago, the NANPA winning image was an extreme closeup of a
zebra and the photographer went on to explain on how he masked the stripes to get
the black and whites to really come out. Pretty awesome stuff.

Doug

[Thinus Schoeman]

Hi Thinus, compositionally I find the stare of the zebra behind rather distraction/busy as your eye is drawn to this rather than the main subject, the egret, but just my take. I would have preferred to have the image as a standalone, still using the FG zebra as the 'perch', but a hint more showing and then only the zebra. I would also prefer a slightly lighter 'grey' however it still works to separate the egret. Visually you can see the muzzle of the rear zebra 'choked', this is where you need to open the exposure up to bring some more definition out, but in doing so you will/can highlight noise, this is where checking your cameras histogram is key, forget the LCD that is only for composition, do not use it for exposure. You want (where possible) to have an even spread without clipping the blacks or whites. You can achieve at lot within your RAW conveyer (LR5.3) then to export to PS where you have a lot of options like Curves, Channels, Layers to target key areas to 'build' your image. Finally adding some selective USM will then pull out more detail.

Thinus, I'm away building on hopefully, a new project so working remotely, however hopefully the attached and the above reply will help you move this on.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, comments and advice highly appreciated, and thanks for looking. Your advice will be taken to heart and I'll do my best to extract more definition out of the muzzle. In the end I think posting the B&W version was worthwhile and I received very useful comments and advice.

Thanks again.

[Thinus Schoeman]

Thanks Tobie, You are correct, it didn't really belong in Wildlife. Your comments are appreciated and thanks for looking.

Thinus

[Thinus Schoeman]

Hi Doug, thanks a lot for the positive comments and for looking. I have along way to go with my PP, but I take note of all advice and try and implement it in order to practice and to improve.

REgards
Thinus