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Rachel Hollander
11-22-2013, 10:20 AM
I thought I'd post something a little different. The whale is a fin whale that we encountered in the waters around Svalbard, Norway. This was after we had spent some time with the fin whales pretty close. They moved closer to the shore and I decided to try for some whalescapes as we were leaving the area. This was taken between 11 a.m. and noon.

Canon 7D
70-200 II @ 200mm
1/3200
f5.6
ISO 800
HH from moving boat, cropped for comp and to straighten, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, reduced the blues and cyans in the mountains, Hougaard Malan action contrast action, sharpened in CS6.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

Don Nelson
11-22-2013, 11:15 AM
Cool image. I like this one - nicelly positioned whale against the mountains.
I think you have a lot of noise in the sky. Sugest maybe redo with just noise reduction in the sky? Sometimes the PDF creation or posting on this site makes things sharpen a bit more than we'd expect so maybe its just that??
I would also call your attention to a couple of sensor dust spots that you missed - one is black in the left hand side of the cloud.
Nicely handled the blue/cyan in the shadows of the mountains. Could you mask to preserve some of the blue in the water (Or are the waters there steel gray due to the lighting? Only you can tell us)
I think this one is very well put together looking at the elements, and thats hard to do with a whale that is coming up/diving - and from a moving boat no less. Kudos!

Rachel Hollander
11-22-2013, 11:27 AM
Hi Don - thanks. I think the noise is due to the compression from getting it to the right size for posting on here. I'm not seeing the dust spot even at 100%. I think it's just a gradient in the cloud. The water color is as it was. I only reduced the blues/cyans in the mountains.

Thanks again,
Rachel

David Stephens
11-22-2013, 04:39 PM
I love the composition. Shooting with the 7D, I would have liked to get the ISO down to 400 or less. Was there a lot of vibration from your boat that you were trying to overcome with high ISO and high SS? I use my 7D a lot at ISO 800, but for landscapes I try to get it down to 400, or use my 5D MkIII. ;-)

Rachel Hollander
11-22-2013, 04:48 PM
Hi David - my 5D3 had the 300 II and 2x III on it:S3:. The boat was starting to move pretty fast so I wanted a fast ss to get everything sharp. I don't have a problem with the 7D on ISO 800 or even sometimes pushing it to 1600 so long as the exposure is correct. What I should have done in the field is stopped down a little bit but at this distance it probably doesn't matter much.

Thanks again,
Rachel

dankearl
11-22-2013, 05:59 PM
Superb Landscape Rachel.
The whale is in a perfect spot and your nice "thirds" comp with the shoreline for perspective is very well done.

David Stephens
11-22-2013, 08:58 PM
Hi David - my 5D3 had the 300 II and 2x III on it:S3:. The boat was starting to move pretty fast so I wanted a fast ss to get everything sharp. I don't have a problem with the 7D on ISO 800 or even sometimes pushing it to 1600 so long as the exposure is correct. What I should have done in the field is stopped down a little bit but at this distance it probably doesn't matter much.

Thanks again,
Rachel

You're welcome.

I also shoot both the 7D and 5D MkIII (formerly the MkII) and find that the 7D can show noise much sooner. The sky looks like it's got a bit of luminescence noise to me, that might have been controlled better at ISO 400. I do ALL my landscapes with the 5D3, primarily for this reason and it also matches my wide-angle lenses better.

Andrew McLachlan
11-23-2013, 08:26 PM
Hi Rachel, I really like this image a lot...the whale is in the perfect spot of the comp as Dan mentioned and the mountainous terrain lovely. Not sure if I would add a little more contrast to the dark mountain side or not...might be worth playing around with to see what you think. Lovely capture!

Steve Kaluski
11-24-2013, 05:03 PM
Hi Rachel, I very much like the comp & overall colours, they dovetail nicely.

Just a thought, but popping a Channels curves adjustment and adjusting the Blues & Blacks in Selective it helps, IMHO, to bring out a bit more depth and striking tones in the dark 'mountain' terraine. I think the contrast might 'choke' the shadows more, but always open to learning. Some NR on the sky really helps.

TFS
Steve

Rachel Hollander
11-24-2013, 05:15 PM
Thanks Dan, Andrew and Steve for the comments and suggestions.

Anette Mossbacher
11-26-2013, 03:52 PM
Hi Rachel,

lots said above with good suggestions. I think you know my blue-ish thing :bg3: Somehow Steve covered it already. try Steve suggestions with the mountains, I am sure those will look much better afterwards. Love th whale in this one. Very nice done. For sure I do understand your ISO800 :w3

Have a great eve

Ciao
Anette

Rachel Hollander
11-26-2013, 08:57 PM
Thanks Anette, :wave:

Bill Jobes
12-06-2013, 06:50 PM
Isn't it amazing the way the whale and its wake steal the show from those stunning, majestic mountains ?

Your composition positions the whale perfectly to balance the image. The varied mountain colors contrasted with tundra gold add even more interest.

Selective NR on the sky would really smooth it out nicely, if you care to take that step.