Randy Andre  


Bronx Zoo Monkey by Randy Andre

July 2021 - Bronx Zoo Monkey

July 2021 - Randy Andre

Original

July 2021 - Randy Andre

Original 2

About the Image(s)

Bronx Zoo Monkey: perhaps our closest living relative, the primates. Monkey's always seem to have a way of looking at you that shows some thought or soul in their eyes. I was attempting to show some emotion in the eyes of this primate, perhaps despair or loss at living its life on public display rather than in the wild in which its ancestors ran free.

The image was taken through glass with a polarizing filter in place. It was taken at 1/250sec @ f/5.6 ISO 2500 with an 18-200mm lens set at 200mm. The 3 photos show the original color, the first edit attempt and then the final.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
11 comments posted




Peter Elliston   Peter Elliston
Randy, yes you've certainly caught that despair in the eyes of the monkey so the image works on that level. It's always difficult photographing through glass and it is hard to achieve good sharp images let alone get rid of reflections. So this is somewhat soft and a little noisy but the crop is good as it isolates the subject. You might try adjusting it using something like Topaz DeNoise A1 which does a really good job without losing too much definition. I have attached that version done using that using the 'clear' setting and increased the sharpness, then pulled back the highlights in Photoshop.   Posted: 07/07/2021 03:45:50
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Barbara Asacker   Barbara Asacker
Hi Peter
You did a good job of removing the noise. I've never tried Topaz Denoise but it worked nicely.   Posted: 07/07/2021 10:23:55
 
Thanks Peter, it does look better, i will have to check topaz denoise.   Posted: 07/07/2021 11:07:44



Barbara Asacker   Barbara Asacker
Hi Randy,
Sad story. You captured his thoughtful eyes. Good composition as the branches frame the subject nicely. Black and white works well, but I prefer the color version. The beautiful color of the monkey stands out and is complemented by the brown branches.   Posted: 07/07/2021 10:40:52



Michael Hrankowski   Michael Hrankowski
(Groups 3 & 83)
Randy, nice capture, especially under the conditions under which you were shooting. At first I thought a tighter crop would draw more attention to the monkey's face, but after I tried it, I didn't like it. Your crop was the right choice. I like Peter's edit. Topaz DeNoise AI is a miracle worker, as is their Sharpen AI - I can't imagine editing photos without them!!!   Posted: 07/07/2021 14:30:41



Linda M Medine   Linda M Medine
Randy, Great catch. I hope you don't mine. I love animal and especially monkeys. I used content aware fill on the branch next to the monkey's face. I did it twice. I did it a little at a time. I took out the branch on the right side too. I went into camera raw and used the radial tool around the monkey's face and body. I took a black brush and black out the hi lights off the branches and a little on his hair. I used a black brush around his eyes. Where there was shadows I made it a little darker to bring out his eyes. I also made the hi lights in his eyes a little bigger and whiter. The to me the eyes is the most importance part.   Posted: 07/07/2021 16:02:37
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I do like the additional hi lights made to the eyes it really does make them more apparent. I'm not sure about removing the branch, I had left it in as a framing device for the face. The ability to remove the branch and recreate the portion of the face that was missing always amazed me and you did a good job on it.   Posted: 07/19/2021 04:40:24



Gerard Blair   Gerard Blair
Not wishing to enter into a debate on animals in captivity - but I do not see despair but rather playfulness. With that in mind, I might suggest a larger crop (also to help with the softness). I have placed the face dead-center - normally considered a no-no but we are being naughty here and saying look at me - and the other monkey's back and tail now become in my view a target for mischief. I also raised the "structure" slider in Nik which seems to have removed some of the softness (I think(?)).   Posted: 07/10/2021 13:20:59
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I think you are correct with the structure slider removing some of the softness. I do find that the change in cropping to include the "back side" of the other monkey distracting, when I cropped that out but left the tail it reminded me of a snake to that had to go to also (content-aware magic).   Posted: 07/19/2021 04:49:35



Hi Randy,
You have captured the monkeys emotion well. Taking an image through glass and at a zoo is such a big challenge to get the sharpness of the subject and no noise. I also use Topaz Denoise and would be lost without it. Good image and suits monochrome too.
  Posted: 07/21/2021 22:30:19



Bev Caine   Bev Caine
(Groups 24 & 48 & 58)
Overall a good image, but I did find thee branch on the left disturbing the image. The adjustment by Linda is a great improvement.   Posted: 07/27/2021 09:15:28