Lowland Gorilla (C)

[Rachel Hollander]

I went to the Bronx Zoo yesterday. There's a new baby lowland gorilla that was born on March 10. The gorillas were still in their indoor enclosure because it wasn't warm enough yet for the infant outside (they want a few days in a row above 60F). The indoor enclosure only has a small viewing area of the gorillas actual enclosure so there was a lot of waiting before the mother brought the baby near the windows. During the wait I had one magic moment when one of the other adults sat in a shaft of light and turned mostly toward the window. I had time for only 2 images when it turned. This was the first. I had fired a test shot while the gorilla had its back to the glass and realized that getting the exposure right on the gorilla meant a darkened bg which I really liked. I know some will want to see the eyes but I think the downcast eyes in shadow are more poignant and perhaps reflective of a captive animal (I realize I am projecting human feelings on an animal). I do have images of the infant and will post one in the near future though I had to shoot them at ISO 6400 due to the very low light.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 200mm
1/1000
f5.6
ISO 1600
HH through glass, small crop for comp, levels to even out bg, selective color adjustments, selective burning, sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

P.S. I did do a conversion for this month's theme but preferred the color.

[Don Railton]

Hi Rachel... Another WOW...! This is a wonderful image. The black bg is perfect for the skin tones, and the downcast look compliment those dark tones nicely. Well done! I really hope the gorilla is a lot happier than he/she looks however. Mind you kids can do that to you..

Regards

Don


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[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
cool pose of the Gorilla , even if the slightly visible tongue make this species sometimes looking a bit stupid , for me.We have a female in our Zoo who has almost all the time the tongue sticking out and the lower lip is hanging downwards , and that looks really stupid, to me.
Regarding the image you have some nice detail and spot colors , i do not mind about the eyes.I am not a fan of pitch black BKG , but your take. I would back off on sharpening because the light fine hairs are looking to prominent in the image , in this case i would take and inverted mask and sharpen only the darker parts .

Good job Rachel, TFS Andreas

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Rachel, lovely image, I like it in color very much. You did very well with the light in this one.
I shall go in the zoo to over here.

No smily now, they do not work!

Have a great Sunday

Ciao
Anette

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Rachel,

You already know how I feel about this image, but I will try to sum it all up in one paragraph: I like the subject's pose, kind of distracted and almost lost in thought. To me the tongue is the focal point, this little pink piece of flesh gives away the mood of the subject, just like the eyes would in normal circumstances, but here it all happens in a more subtle manner - the tongue gives life and meaning to the whole image. This is no ordinary photograph and, like I said to you earlier, I am so glad you did not try to extract detail from the eyes and allowed instead for the tongue to speak for your subject. Very evocative and I do like the space, I also like the darkness which to me is symbolic of the incarceration. This moves me Rachel, brilliant work!

Warmest regards,

[Marc Mol]

The detail, colour and tones look pretty good here Rachel, no sharpness issues here and if there was it shows up in spades on a Mac retina big time,
the dark BG really suiting the downcast look.
Just goes to show you don't have go to central DRC to capture an evocative Lowland Gorilla image in a captive situation.
One of your best for me .

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Folks i still do believe the fine hair of this gorilla looks over sharpened .
For illustration purpose reduced sharpening , not ideal done from OP . But maybe you get the idea .
Rachel i hope you do not mind , but it is just my view.

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Andreas - I never mind a rp. Interestingly I had applied hardly any sharpening, just applying the Perrold sharpening action at 30%.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Sid Garige]

Rachel,
I like the image. Even though it is a black ground with dark subject I guess bit of back lighting helped in making it interesting. Very much liked the shadows on the face.
Very well done.

-Sid

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, like Marc's having the solid, dense black really makes the image as it's quite a powerful statement . Personally if you have it, then less black at the base of the back RHS and just open slightly the eye brow/lis just for a hint more definition. I like the subtlety of colour as it works well with he overall palette. The expression is priceless and perhaps poignant? I wonder if a little less on the LHS might help?

Worth the trip out.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sid and Steve, very much appreciated . Steve - I'll look at your suggestions.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

hi Rachel, no problemo i personally do not like his action because he uses just the menu "sharpen " and not USM for his action.
Could you upload or send me the unsharpened and down sampled file ?

i would like to have a look juts for the interest, because it still feel it looks to sharp , just in the HL

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Andreas - Here is the unsharpened tiff just downsized to BPN posting size.

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Rachel for the quick upload, this looks already sharp enough for me but i sharpened it a bit. Just used High Pass at 0.2 px set to linear light and masked it with an inverted green channel. set to 66 % opacity .

Just curious asking , how did you downsample the image ?

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Fit Image constrained to 1200 by 900.

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Rachel

Coming in a bit late….

The bit of pink in the mouth makes this image.

Makes you think what he was thinking of; how advanced is their thought process?

The sagging skin under eyes implies sadness, enhanced by the posture..

Very thought provoking image.

The glass must have been very clean to get such a sharp image...

Regards

Andre

[Morkel Erasmus]

Rachel, it works well as a poignant statement as you and others have pointed out. I won't do a RP too , but agree the OP looks a bit crunchy. The sharpening action works well, sometimes worth it to apply a selection mask and further apply to selected areas as needed, perhaps even at lower opacity.

I do wish the near arm and shoulder were in focus - normally not bugged by it but with the stark outline against the uniform dark BG it just draws my eye more than it usually would...I know light was at a premium here...

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Andre and Morkel. Morkel - I do paint the sharpening at various levels of opacity. I actually masked the shoulder at 100% wanting to leave that oof and draw attention to the face. I can revisit it.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[shane shacaluga]

This is a great image! The black BG and mostly black and white features really work well

The pink tongue and brown hair on the top of the head then make you realise it is actually a colour photograph

TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Shane, much appreciated.