Love is blind, as they say. People generally find Baboons to be rather ugly, to me they are beautiful subjects to photograph - they are so expressive.
I am sharing this for two reasons:
1. I love the expression on this character's face
2. I would like to know how you feel about this image (in terms of content) despite the poor IQ and noise - does it grab you?
Taken with my old (and sold) Nikon D300S, 300mm F2.8 lens, ISO 2500 (which this camera really could not handle), F5.6 and 1/320s.
This image has been lying in my folders for some time, it was taken at h16:25 pm and the light was really bad only I could not help but capture this young baboon lying on the side of the road among those wild flowers. I must say, spending time with those amazing subjects - so relaxed in our company - intensified my delight and wonder at being human in this magnificent corner of Africa.
I processed this best I could - IQ not ideal, I know. What do you think? Bin it? Keep it? Love the hand over the mouth and the surprised look, any more PP work and it becomes crunchy, so a levels and curves adjustment and of course sharpening (as much as it could take).
Hope you have a wonderful week-end, we are off early tomorrow morning to a special place and have no idea what we will encounter, which is somewhat exciting:)
At first viewing and before reading the text, the shot surprised me a little as I felt it was somewhat noisy and lacking your usual IQ.
However, once I got past that, I started to appreciate the pose, the POV, the little glimpse through the flowers into those eyes.
I then looked at your text and realised that the techs are actually very good given the conditions you must have been working in - the only question would be did you slightly miss the focus as the hand looks sharper than the right eye.
Keeper / Bin it? Keeper for me all day long as the look of the shot over-rides any technical deficiencies.
Can't see why you'd even cosider binning this, Gabriela! It's more than clear enough to be appreciated, it conveys a feeling of total trust and being away in a world of 'nothingness'. The flowers give it a nice touch. It's a keeper in my books!
Mike, I had a specific reason to show this, since I mentioned a couple of things in my previous post entitled" WHAT IS IT?" regarding image content. While sharing images from time to time on various websites, I realised that a majority of non-photographers cannot tell the difference between a good quality image and a poor one, they just look at the content. Here I was wondering how you (BPN members) felt about this, whether it made you look for longer than usual, and if you were prepared to say "it is a keeper" despite its shortcomings:)
For me the expression on this baboon's face - hand on its mouth as if he had seen something he should not have seen, or something ghastly - really grabs me, and I remember shooting this in a hurry despite the conditions because I so badly wanted to have it. From time to time I go through my older folders and delete stuff, this particular folder had over a hundred images to begin with, of which only seven are still there and never to be deleted:)
I had a look at the original again and the FP is precisely on the subject's right eye. Depending how one approaches this, one could emphasise the eyes more. I "focused" my processing on the hands. Not enough sharpening perhaps but felt I would "kill" this baboon if I went any further with my PP work. What I did do is an interesting crop, and I will show you the original soon.
And Tobie, I do not plan to bin it really. It was just a figure of speech:) I love this, hoping to find a way to get rid of some of that noise and will do another RP when I figure that out, LOL
Will be back with another (hopefully more interesting) RP, as well as give you an idea of what the original looked like. I know a number of people who would have deleted it, LOL
Hi Gabriela - You know that I feel this is a special frame content-wise and that makes it a keeper despite any tech issues. Love the pose among the wildflowers, the hand on the mouth and the expressive eyes. Looking forward to seeing the rp and what the original looked like.
I was not going to post this in the first place, but you have changed my mind:) I thought it might be an interesting exercise, after all.
Here's an RP, more midtones on the subject and less emphasis on the surroundings - WDYT? Do not want to do any noise reduction as such, at least not now -it would defeat the purpose of the whole exercise
Original to follow, I am running in-between my computer and the kitchen, LOL! Beef Stroganoff for supper tonight:)
I also prefer the first one - the second seems a bit over-sharpened but whether it is additional (read 'too much') midtone contrat I don't know. Also, the hairs on the head seem on the original to recede much more naturally regards level of focus.
To my mind this is an example of what I imagine film afficionados mean when they say 'too digital' in that there comes a point the image is showing something the eye just does not see.
Thank you so much Rachel and Mike - I love your comments and find your conclusions quite interesting - they somehow lead to the idea of "less is more" which is something I strongly endorse nowadays.
I never mind experimenting and often follow up on members' critique with an RP - whether it works or not is really up to the audience:)
Will be back tomorrow with a copy of the original, right now we are experiencing "load shedding" so no electricity, relying on the UPS but not for long...
Hi Gabriela, good for you to pull out something from the archive and reprocess/experiment.
The RP works better for me (albeit viewing on the laptop), there is more depth, tonal contrast, warmth and the eyes are 'alive'. Overall the image has good detail and I think you have to think back to when you took the image, the camera gear was 'state-of-the-art' and you did not have the knowledge you have now, you are far more discerning now. If you reflect back, you would have been extremely please with this and so you should, it's only with hindsight are you questioning the image NOW.
Having the colourful flowers set against the rock environment, the sharp detail interspersed by shallow depths of field in parts, clashes a little for me, but it's the fact the subject is so engrossed in his/her hands, not looking at you and more about the 'grooming/behavioural' aspect I like and where the subject is extremely relaxes provides an interesting moment captured.
I don't think going slightly tighter crop (in parts) will help and adjusting the surrounding DoF will add much more, I would build on this and look to future images where you can bring all your newly acquired knowledge both in terms of capturing/PP with the advancement of your camera gear.
Steve, for obvious reasons I rarely share images from old folders:) The D300S could not handle high ISO and anyway at 1/320s I often delete my images. With a 300mm lens, subject slightly moving, shooting without support, I would have liked to have had at least 1/800s here. This was taken at a strange angle, I had to climb on top of a large Pelikan box lying on the seat next to me and shoot down as the baboons were lying on the side of the road near the vehicle. I do these things sometimes, LOL...
Here's the original and you might be surprised to see what it looked like before cropping:) I did adjust the surroundings but ever so slightly - the flowers were a problem when doing so
And I keep going to the Game Reserve almost every week-end, hoping for an opportunity to capture something special - those Chachma Baboons have so much to offer in terms of facial expression and behaviour in general.
Thank you again Steve, your feedback is priceless and I appreciate your time to view and comment - you helped me understand where the strengths and weaknesses lie within this image and I shall take your advice with me in the future, in the field as well as during PP work
Err...I would have donnered (fallen) out of the car window if my lens was anything bigger than a 300, LOL. I was perched on the Pelikan box at the time, and it was slippery! These days I try and keep the entire bench open at the back of the vehicle, despite the increasing number of lenses and cameras. Andre constantly builds all sorts of "contraptions" to make things easier and equipment readily available, yet we never have enough space for everything. Questions like "where's my converter" and " do you remember where I put my spare battery" kept coming up, so now we are busy to make things "perfect" for the next trip. Oh well, I still wonder where to keep the coffee basket