Infant Lowland Gorilla (C)

[Rachel Hollander]

I said in the other thread that I would post one of the infant gorilla born on March 10th at the Bronx Zoo. By no means the best image. They don't know the gender of the baby yet and it clung to the mother the whole time. They were in the indoor exhibit because it was too cold for the baby outside. The light was horrible. This is one of the only images where a little bit of light reached the baby's face.

Canon 5D3
70-200 @ 105mm
1/160
f4
ISO 6400 (first time I cranked it up that high)
HH through glass, cropped from left and top, levels, curves, selective color, dodging and burning, low key filter in Nik Color Efex, strong NR and sharpened in CCPS.

More of a record shot but C&C still welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Hi Rachel,
This one has a nice quiet mood to it. Almost looks to be a B/W but has a nice peaceful color tone. If IQ allows, I like a slightly tighter crop eliminating some of the OOF fur on the viewer's right.

[Don Railton]

Hi Rachel,

This is a nice tender moment you have captured here, in difficult light. I am impressed with the IQ given the ISO you were forced into. I like the crop as it is, as I think the black does not draw the eye and I would not want to centre the little one...

Well done.

DON

[Marc Mol]

Take away the yellow staw on mum and you almost have a monochrome submission here, good detail extracted considering you shot through glass, agree on a slighty tighter crop.
Did you use any NR on the face & arms Rachel, as the detail has held up fairly well.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, the mood is nice and perhaps you could go a little tighter certainly on the sides. I'm not sure if the toning adds or not, just personal taste. Unfortunately the grain is showing on this, but then I guess the location was not ideal, especially shooting through glass! I might try going for something along the B/W route, slightly darker & richer?

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone. Yes, b&w or duotone is a possibility here. Marc - I applied aggressive color NR in ACR and then applied NR selectively to the bg, the mother gorilla on the rhs and to the eyes which I had brought up a bit in pp.

Thanks again,
Rachel