Ok, this one was tricky... the lighting was hard, and was directly behind him. It backlit him, and the cage he was in. The cage was heavy, fairly closely knit, and he was only sitting about a foot from the side of it. I would have used some fill flash, but that wasn't possible for two reasons. First, I would have illuminated the side of the cage totally ruining the shot. Second, the flash head is bigger than the weave of the cage, which would have put a harsh "stripe" on him. Also, this cage had fungus on it of a type that reflects horribly (all the cages at the Hilo zoo do, it is in a rain forest). So... it was natural light only, wide aperture only (to blow out the cage) and he was backlit. Here's a small picture of what I was dealing with... right after I took it he backed of 10 or 12 inches which let me move in and get the shot.
To get that shot under those conditions is bloody marvelous! Nicely done. The lighting actually makes it a more interesting shot, IMHO. (And if the title hadn't said 'snarl', I might have thought it was a cheesy ol' grin he was giving you)
I did bring up the left eye some in post, I don't usually post but there wasn't enough definition of it in the original, so I brought it out a bit.
Thanks Mike... What more light would have done is let me expose better so I didn't have to totally blow out the face at the right... you can see how the right side of the face has blown out white fur... I could have brought up a soft fill (and a second catchlight) and not had to blow out the hightlights.
Great shot! I think the lighting works incredibly well here. Nice job seeing the light and using it to your advantage. :thumbup: NJ
