Burchell's (Zululand) Zebra

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Friends,

Found something to share with you tonight, this after some serious searching. Been looking for something a bit different, and it might not be your cuppa (call it "marmite" if you like) but I am willing to take the risk I remember trying to capture this scene at various DoF and experimenting with a camera I hardly ever use. Which by the way does not like high ISO

Nikon D810
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 3200
F5.6
1/1250

Thank you so much for taking the time to view, I so appreciate it. Comments and critique very welcome, be it technical or otherwise.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the tonal range and the quality looks good. The crop with half leg looks fine to me. Yup looks good to me, I appreciate the something different aspect but I am curious to see what the colour version was like.

[Glenn Pure]

Very nice indeed, Gabriela. The head turned towards you while chewing is slightly comic and quite engaging. One ear cocked to the side adds to this. I love the appearance of the low bush in the foreground and the others faded away around it. I don't know if you've done something in post to achieve this or that's how the scene came out of the camera but it looks great - almost ethereal. I'm guessing you did something in post? the conversion looks pretty good to me but wondering if the darker tones on the head could go a bit darker/richer. Same of the leg. Nice work and thanks for digging this one up and sharing it.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - This works well for me with the toning and the grass in the mouth, the leg as an edge and the plant in the lower corner. Some of the whites are hot and I would tame them if it were mine. Overall, a nice frame and will worth searching for.

TFS,
Rachel

[John Mack]

Love the pattern on the zebras face. Nice pose the grass in the mouth is a nice touch. This looks very nice for the high ISO.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much dear friends,

I processed this for fun some time ago, and I remember looking for it last month for the B/W & Toned Images Theme. What I liked about this frame was the shallow DoF, not so good for the zebra but it made that little bush stand out a bit.

Rachel I think the hot whites are my fault (some extreme curves and levels there), just looked at the RAW and it seems fine.
One of these days I will show you the colour version, for now I am sharing already processed images, due to lack of time So you are in for a lot of "marmite" LOL, maybe some interesting ones too we'll see...

Hope you all have an awesome week-end,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, the pose is a classic and I very much like the fact it 'hangs' from the RH edge, just sits well for me. The added grass in the moth adds to the scene too. Hard to tell on the laptop, but the conversion looks OK. Have you done anything to the BKG, the soft, OOF backdrop I'm just not sure on, but does help on the separation. For me I would like a bit more width on the leg, I find it a wee bit tight.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Jon, Glenn, Rachel, John and Steve:)

Steve, I do not remember what I did to the BG, I will have to look at the Tiff. I will revisit this image soon and try implement your suggestions in the colour version then post it.

Warmest regards,