Gray Yearling

Beautiful portrait of a species I would love to encounter in the wild someday! Good details and colors here along with the side-lighting. Excellent work!

Lovely portrait here Max. Love your wolf images - great series.
Perhaps this one can do with a fraction more 'opening up' (dodging perhaps?) of the shaded parts of the face and the blacks of the nose...just not to the point where it loses the natural shaded look.

In images like this I always look for some 'level indicator' - in this case it's the eartips and eyes, and I think it can do with a very slight CW rotation?

I like this image a lot Max, the shadow adds some good depth and the details are great.

Morkel, your comment brings up an interesting question. If you look at the vertical shot with the full body, you can see that the body is fairly straight, perhaps even tilted ever so slightly clockwise. The head is angled because the wolf has cocked its head that way.

I prefer to keep it as is because that's more true to the situation I was photographing, but I do wonder how others feel... would you rotate this more-heavily cropped shot to produce a "more appealing" angle if possible simply for aesthetics, or would you prefer to maintain a more accurate representation of the scene? In some ways it's not too different from the cloning/adding canvas debate I suppose.

Max

Max, sometimes I would rotate an image even though I know it is straight because it appears to be crooked. In this case, however, it seems that the head is cocked to the side a bit and I would leave it as you have it. I do agree that the right side of the wolf should be opened up a bit.

Superb wolf Portrait Max, love the contrast between the light and shadow sides of the face. I might tone down the hihglights in the bg just a tad to emphasise the lovely wolf

This is a beautiful close-up portrait and will look great in your calendar (but the vertical version is awesome too). The side light works very well in this situation. I like being able to see good detail on the shadowed side too. Great wolf portrait Max!!!

Ken Archer

Hi Max,

On my laptop the balance between the sunlit and shaded side of the face looks great - I personally think any more opening up of shadow detail would make the image look artificial. Of course, this will vary dramatically between viewing devices and this is one situation where there's no way you can make it good on all monitors (there's an argument for making prints!).

I prefer the vertical crop but I totally understand the constraints imposed on you by the calendar format - I've done a little head-butting recently with a publisher who's doing up two calendars containing my images in what I think is close to the worst format possible (to showcase images)!

Overall a nice, simple shot that belies the difficulty in photographing wolves in a natural setting - well done...

Cheers...

Brad

It is the look from this wolf that makes the image for me. I like that you can see good detail in the shadows and the original vertical image is outstanding, way to go.

This one's a beauty, Max! Excellent IQ and techs and I find the comp very pleasing as presented. As noted above, its the wolf's look and your capture of the moment that makes this a winner. After working on several of Jenaya, Marlise and my images last year for a calendar I discovered how frustrating that format/ratio can be when you have a standard 2X3 comp you've grown to appreciate or a vertical of the same subject you like better. In any event, I think this is a great choice as presented.