Black Beauty

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks another quick Seal portrait for this month theme before it is over ..... well the theme :bg3:
Image of this Elephant Seal pup was taken on South Georgia on a landing site called " Right Whale Bay " .

Canon EOS 1D MK IV
Ef 500 IS L
Tripod and Gitzo Fluid Head

F 4 ; Iso 800 ; 1/400 sec ; man exp . well today i would have chosen another setting , but you can imagine how the light situation was when you look at the settings .

Processed with DPP 4 and PS CC , cropped from all sides slightly , sadly i have cut off his/her left flipper due to the use of the 500 , so i cropped in even more in post better no flipper than a half one :bg3:.

Thanks for looking and leaving a comment to my last thread .

Cheers Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I think you did well considering the environment & kit.

I personally think the crop, framing is fine, as it's the face that draws you in, especially with those 'ink pool' eyes, but just my take. Good call on going tighter. I also like that the majority is almost B/W with the background of Mum (?) in colour, it works well and has a nice balance/contrast. However, if you had the 1DX then I think increasing the ISO to gain more DoF & even some SS would have helped, primarily just to get than lovely nose sharp and to join those, oh so cute, eyes.

TFS
Steve

PS Never got this close in Svalbard :w3

[haseeb badar]

Hi Andreas -- very nice portrait ! beautiful eyes , colors and tones looks good too . agree with steve on more dof here and i think mk IV can be stretched to iso 2000 , but u already said your settings would have been different lately .
BTW wat is that thing coiled up in front of the Seal ?
TFS !

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Steve and Haseeb for your feedback , much appreciated.

Steve - yes it is mum in the BG . And for sure the 1Dx would have been better for the techs , but i could have gone higher with the Iso on the MK IV with todays NR technique that i am able to achieve both me and the available software :bg3:.

I have seen a close up of yours from your recent Svalbard trip ...... so there you also have been not that far away from the subject . But agree in general it is way easier to do that stuff on South Georgia / Donna / Helgoland rather than on /around Svalbard as far as my single Svalbard experience goes , but you can show me personally how it is up there , just make the expedition come true and you can show me all the secrets regarding shooting techs from the nose to the eyes :wave:.

Haseeb - the curled stuff in the FG is some kind of seaweed .

Thanks again and cheers, Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - there's cuteness factor at play here too. Nice detail and exp of the blacks. I think I see your reflection in the eye. I might come in a little more on the rhs to make it more apparent that it is purposeful.

TFS,
Rachel

[Marc Mol]

I know only too well the decisions one makes with the 500 re. framing & cropping and feel you've done the best here Andreas by going in closer, love the details on the face and overall cuteness factor.

TFS

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,love the sad look on his face,and those eyes.TFS.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Very cute indeed Andreas, and I'm fine with framing too.
Steve summed it up nicely.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Rachel, Marc, Chris and Morkel so much for your feedback , much appreciated :wave:

Cheers Andreas