Cape Cross Fur Seal Colony

[Rachel Hollander]

I thought I would add to the recent posts of seals and fur seals with one of my own but still something different. This is a wider view of only a portion of the Cape Cross Fur Seal Colony in Namibia.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 75mm
1/125
f14
ISO 400
HH from the elevated walkway. Luminosity mask, levels, curves and selective color adjustments, sharpened in CS 6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel


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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, you just can't comprehend the massing population on the beach as they seem to blend well into the rocks & sand, bet there was quite a racket going on.

Personally I feel it looks washed out, sorry no pun intended. I applied a a multiply mode instead of the Lumo and things just popped nicely. You may wish to drop the Saturation a little -10 (?). I also added a B/W copy of the image to then blend it to help the sea too. Just gives a bit more depth and draws out what you have in the image. You might wish to consider cloning out the seal on the bottom edge, always difficult not to clip something, but I feel it would be better. Just watch you SS, perhaps a little more ISO?

TFS
Steve

[John Chardine]

Personally I like the flatness of the original with all the detail in the shadow areas. The lighting looks flat anyway. Agree with Steve to clean up bottom edge- a crop would work too.

I can only imagine the smell of a beach like this. Antarctic Fur Seal males smell like onions and garlic to me!

[Morkel Erasmus]

The smell must've been awful!

I would crop the sky out of this one, Rachel, it's not adding much and taking it out will strengthen the comp IMHO :t3 (I did a screen crop).
You can add some subtle punch by gently burning the shadows and dodging the highlights on the seals/FG (about 4-5% strength brush).

[John Chardine]

The smell must've been awful!

I would crop the sky out of this one, Rachel, it's not adding much and taking it out will strengthen the comp IMHO :t3 (I did a screen crop).
You can add some subtle punch by gently burning the shadows and dodging the highlights on the seals/FG (about 4-5% strength brush).

......or a linear contrast increase in Curves.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve, John and Morkel for the comments and suggestions. Here's a repost with a bit more punch and the suggested crop.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like it. Though I might reduce the blacks now just a tad.
WDYT??

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Morkel. I actually prefer the OP. I think it is truer to the scene but I think I also tend to like less contrast that some. :w3

[Steve Canuel]

Also like the OP. Less contrasty versions seems to be more in keeping with the overcast looking conditions. It also blends better with the color of the water to my eye. I like the position of the big one sitting up at the bottom of the frame.