Hello everyone. Thank you for all your comments and suggestions to my previous post, as always much appreciated.
A big deviation from my recent postings and so I am posting a tight portrait of a rhesus macaque. Image taken in the terrai region of Dudhwa national park, and because of colder climate they are furry. They always forage for food and throng forest guest house area for easy pickings and in the process they have no fear of humans and instead they easily open doors, enter a room and scan the area for food items. This particular individual was supposed to be a leader of the group or at least behaved like one and came near our cottage to find some carelessly left bag full of food items. It came very close and i was using my TC at that time on the 500mm. Could have easily stopped down to say f 11 as i had the iso to balance the things but not sure whether that would have helped in getting that nose sharp. Instead i went for the shallow approach to get those eyes sharp and creating a blur all around it.
DPP 4.8, PSCC 2019, WB, curves, selective colour, cropped from the bottom to eliminate the back of an OOF macaque, sharpening.
Canon 1dX mk ii, canon 500mm f4 IS II x 1.4 T.C., HH.
ss 1/800, f/5.6, iso 1250.
Looking forward for all your comments and suggestions, be it of any nature.
I like your thinking behind this image and placing emphasis on a particular facial feature was a good idea IMO. I love tight portraits so for me the composition here works well, this frame is all about expression and I cannot help but stare into those eyes, I find them captivating.
Whether it's due to DoF or you might have added a small blur vignette, the softness around the subject's face adds a certain "depth" to this portrait that is so pleasing. Colours look good to me, I must admit I have never encountered the species in real life but I recollect having seen images of macaque in the past.
Image well exposed and nice detail in and around those eyes. Love everything about it
Oooh, this is rather mesmerizing! I'm glad you photographed with a wide-open aperture as we are immediately drawn to the well-focused and sharp eyes. Well done!
Hi Haseeb, for me when you get this close it's all about detail & textures, so I would have gone for more DoF, however I also take Dan's point on that - it draws the viewer to the eyes.
The eyes do appear to be looking slightly away rather than direct, so it might be worth checking some of the other frames in the series. Had a play yesterday, but wanted to see what others thought and Gabriela touch on part of the thinking I had and to draw the viewer in would be to use an old photographic trick and add a slight vignette to tighten focus. I think also you can play a bit more with the exposure to add more depth in part to create form and structure within some of the folds, creases and bring a bit more life into the eyes.
Haseeb, I deliberately pushed this to emphasis what I mean and so perhaps somewhere between the two, nothing complicated and all within your skill set, just build it all up with layers & masks within PS. The image is a great platform where you can really hone this capture and take it beyond.
@Steve and Gabriela -- Point well taken reg the vignette suggestion for more emphasis on eyes as with shallow dof darkening the areas around it makes a tunnel vision, something more subtle though. I do have a frame with a look more towards the camera but i feel this came out more sharp than that one, hence opted for this.
Like its Snowy Cousin !
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