Longleat & Monkey World

just a few pics taken a couple of weekends ago any thoughts very welcome and if anyone wants to do any tweaks please feel free to
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/chimpbw.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/lioness.jpg[/IMG]
Black & white conversion of the above
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/lionessbw.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/deer1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/meerkat1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/wolf2bw.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/chipmunk2.jpg[/IMG]

Number 4 gets my vote

It's got to be the monkey on the pole for me - great expression and pose.

It's got to be the first one for me too, really good composition and expression. I'm not keen on the mono lion, it seems to lose some of the sense of drama without the colour. A good set though, my one and only trip to Longleat was in the pouring rain :0(

Fiona

The chimp on a pole is the stand-out shot for me, great stuff.

K.

[IMG]http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy9/i_berg/Pentax%20User%20Forum%20Images/chimpbw1.jpg[/IMG]

Tweak herewith - a bit of fill light, additional brightness and a heavy handed play with the tone curve.

I cropped some of the sky away also, to focus more attention on our friend.

The intention was to darken the background, and bring some more light and detail out of the chimp (poor bugger).

My guess is that your camera exposed for the (brighter) sky more so than your (darker) subject. That was good in one sense, because it meant you got to keep the detail in the clouds.

Can you recall which metering mode you used for these shots? The mode can make a fair bit of difference.

The wolf shot for me, very natural looking ..... followed by the chimp (though what is going on in the sky ? Are those lines some form of haloing) ?

The lion shots look over-processed to me, either over sharpened, over contrasted .. or both !

thanks for all the feedback.
i-berg - i used multi-segment metering but did dial in +1.7 of exposure compensation to get some detail in the chimp.
Gareth & Frogfish - the funny lines in the sky have come from some fairly heavy burning i think. (i'm still new to all this post processing stuff)as there is no sign of them on a straight b&w conversion from the original raw file
As for the lion your right it has had rather alot of sharpening to try and compensate for shooting a moving subject through a windscreen. i've also probably been a bit heavy handed with the saturation slider aswell lol
I'll have a go at re-working both shots and re-posting them and i'd appreciate if u guys could tell me if you think there's any improvement.

i've re-worked these 2 and i think the processing is better but would like to hear your thoughts.

[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/chimpcropbw.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff385/dhumpy/Longleat%20and%20Monkey%20World/lionessreworked.jpg[/IMG]

the second monkey image you have done is much better as on the first one somethong strange had happened to the left eye.

The monkey shot for me too, the re-processed one looks better, as does the lion.

The reworked chimp shot is much better. It's still my favourite.

Fiona

Thanks again for the feedback. I do tend to leave composition as it appears in camera but it is amazing what a more thought out crop can do. Note to self 'Crop tool, top left in PP, use it!' lol