Hippo Portrait - too close?

[ggoldthorpe]

Canon EOS 50D
Taken:29/10/09
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: 7.1
ISO: 400
Lens:EF 100-400 (at 310)
No Flash


Hello again,

OK, so I think I've go the idea now. Going to try posing direct from flickr.

This was taken at my local zoo in Tbilisi where the enclosures are somewhat outdated and intrusive. To counter this, then, I cropped the image very tightly...but, is it too tight?

Cheers,

G

[SusanH1970]

I actually rather like that his face fills the frame, it makes him look quite foreboding! I'd just brighten it up a bit, the conversion seems very dark.

[ggoldthorpe]

Thanks Susan - I'm hearing this a lot with my images - that they are too dark - and I'm beginning to wonder if it is the screen of my laptop because images seem plenty bright to me. have you ever heard people with Macs complaining about images being too bright?

Thanks for the compliment on the cropping though.

G

[SusanH1970]

Whether you're on a Mac or a PC, if you're having trouble with that, you just need to calibrate your monitor. Hope this helps.

[CiiVii]

Macs are going to look lighter than PCs by default because they use a gamma of 1.8 versus the PC's 2.2. Big difference! BUT- you can't control the settings of another person's monitor, they can be at default or could be calibrated for any imaginable purpose.

[statichash]

I like this shot, it's very - "up close and personal". Like Susan mentioned, it could probably do it some justice with a lighter tone to it - to help bring out the character.

Your Mac has settings for the monitor if you go to the Apple icon and choose preferences, one of the options I believe is "Display" you should be able to play around with the brightness in there. (I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea , so I'm forgive me if I've forgotten the details for the MAC)

Cheers!

[ggoldthorpe]

Hello again - I had a quick play with the hippo photo (within flickr, so nothing fancy) - is this any better? Not sure I've managed to get the contrast back.

G

[SusanH1970]

I like the 2nd edit. The details of his face stand out much better.

[Sterling]

I think the close crop works really well here. It helps helps to portray the size od the hippo - like it's so big that it can't be contained in the frame.

[dishingthedivine]

I'm on a PC and I deal with the same problem. As is mentioned above, we can't control others' monitors. hmmm. i work so hard to get exposure right, and who knows? Maybe it's all for not on the viewer's end.