Lump-O-Lard

[Alan Lillich]

Leucistic (I think) bull elephant seal, Right Whale Bay, South Georgia Island. I cloned out some water in the upper left corner, and some distracting sticks and rocks on the right edge. Used Nik Detail Extractor on just the seal, it really opened up the eyes from the raw file. As I learned a few days later on the ship from Clemens Vanderwerf, I need to generally stop down more (like f/16 here). I was on my knees, I don't recall if it was handheld (probably) or using a tripod.

!D-IV, 70-200 f/2.8 at 123mm, ISO 400, 1/160 at f/8 in aperture priority.


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[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Hi Alan, This one sure has a lot of blubber with him. I like the central composition and the details on the seal are very good. This one is considerably lighter of color compared to most of the other ones we saw. The DOF on the nose and eyes here is okay with f8, as that is pretty much the only part that you want really sharp in focus. His face as percentage of the image is not that big in the frame, so in this case f16 would be a bit overkill, compared to the image you posted the other day, where it would have helped to stop down further.
I tend to be careful with DE on the eyes as it makes them often too light and flat looking. I prefer to use dodge and burn at 10% and lighten them slightly that way. Is a little more subtle.
Personally, I am not in favor of the tight framing that you presented here. The subject needs to be able to breath. I would put more space left and right and on the top.

[John Chardine]

Lovely portrait Alan. The image shows the animal exactly the way they are. Beautiful tones and light. Nice low angle. The intention here is an intimate portrait and the framing for me is perfect.

This is a normal male, not leucistic. Colouration is very variable between individuals.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Alan - I much prefer this one to your previous post. The pov works well to place the emphasis on the face but still show the whole body. I like the tight framing here. I am wondering if you can extract a bit more detail though.

TFS,
Rachel

[Robert Amoruso]

Great view and POV Alan. I would prefer just a touch more room left and right as it feels cramped.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Alan,
Even for me a bit tight on left and right.....but great perspective and centered comp works!

[John Chardine]

The logic of a tight crop is to show the frame-filling size of these amazing beasts. A looser crop would give a different impression of the subject.

[Roman Kurywczak]

I agree John! I want very little added as you know I like tight crops!

[Alan Lillich]

Thanks all. I see the point of having as much space on left and right as the bottom.

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific image and loving your POV here. Agree on a tad more space.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Loving the head-on angle here Alan...
Did you crop much? More space to add back by re-cropping?
Nicely exposed. What a fatso! :Whoa!:

[Alan Lillich]

I redid this from a different frame. I noticed that the original was a little blue, so I changed the white balance from 5350 to 5800. It looks fine to me on one monitor and maybe a tiny bit yellow on another (both recently calibrated). In the original I had straightened slightly (1.4 degrees) in LR and then cropped a tiny bit all around in LR. Most of the side crops were from the rotation though. I did no rotation this time, and still did some top/bottom cropping in PS after cloning out some water in the upper left corner and annoying rocks and sticks. I added a tiny bit of canvas on the right and left. Thanks for all the help.

The more I look at it, the more I'm struck by how much the facial anatomy looks like a cat.