Caged Despair

Which one evokes the strongest emotion(I realize 1 and 2 are similar, but the lighting is different)

1.

#3 for sure for me, seeing the face makes a world of difference

I agree. Without the face, I don't think you have an effective shot. What bothers me a little about all of them is that my eye is drawn to the lighter area at the top. You might try darkening that a little and lightening the animal. But not too much -- the overall dark lighting contributes to the sombre mood.

3 for sure, apart from whats been said above i feel there is a lot of space on the top which also being the brightest part of the image distracts from the main subject...

I think that the lighting is kind of opposite...if the top was dark and had shadows casting over light at the bottom on the animal it would have a lot more clarity without giving up the feeling of darkness and loneliness that I think you're going for here.

Thanks for the comments, I liked 3 best as well, but I figured I'd ask. Here are a few edits of 3, which do you guys feel is best?

I used shadows/highlights to tone down the highlights up top in this one, and I slightly increased the midtone brightness on the baboon.

I like the colored one more in this one because it shows all the warmth that the little guy is missing.

# 2 i think, it would improve the image though if there was less of the dark mass at the LHS bottom corner..of course you'v got to work with what you have so given that # 2 looks much better...

cheers

I am leaning in the opposite direction. In the bottom shot he looks more angry to me, yet in the top shots the dark lighting and the way he faces the wire with his head down makes him look sad & dejected, almost as if he is crying. I think the first or second are more visually powerful and evoke more of a feeling of sorrow from me for the animal.

Wow #3 very powerful!