Partial facial profile of a female mountain gorilla of the Agasha group, in the Volcanos National Park in Rwanda.
Some observations on the tech choices here, I used a wide range of settings and lenses when I was there, but I like the very narrow depth of field and close crop for a number of reasons: the black fur can be a bit formless on the full animal, given the uniform consistency; the background is close and not compelling; but primarily, if you are looking into the eyes of a gorilla at close range, that is all you see.
Canon 7DII and 400/f2.8II, full frame, processed in Lightroom.
1/400, f3.2, ISO800.
Greg
I think it is really captivating, those eyes really do make you pay attention! I like the tones and fine details. You could consider reducing the contrast in the background a little i think this would make it a little more incidental as it were.
Hi Greg -- What a magnificent looking subject you have got and correctly said , those eye are quite engaging. Agree with Jon's suggestion on reducing the contrast on the BKG and saturation as well . I might open the midtones slightly to bring those finer details in the fur and blacks . All in all I really loved this capture with a very deep eye contact . Nicely done.
Hi Greg - I think the comp works really well and those eyes are captivating. Some of the blacks are choked but I understand from your intro that you're not too concerned about that. Good suggestions above about dealing with the bg.
Greg, a really captivating image. I like your composition a great deal. The suggestions about the background are worth a try, I think. Detail is excellent here and happy with your choice of narrow DOF. Only issue I can see here is that the eyes are just starting to drop out of focus but your choice to have the nose and mouth sharp was a good one. So, in short, I think it would have been good to have just a whisker more DOF to bring the eyes into super-crisp focus. Regardless of all of that, I'd be pretty happy if this was in my folders.