Snapping Turtle in the garden

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

Found this snapping turtle in my aunt's garden few weeks ago just as we were about to leave, it was walking across the backyard and headed into the neighbor's property. We googled what to do, and most websites said just leave it alone, so we did. The shell was about a foot in diameter and it's tail was quite long and had spikes, about 8 inches and looked like that of a dinosaur or godzilla! When we got back in about an hour it was gone.

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Canon 7D w/ Canon 200mm f/2.8L II
ISO 200, f/4, 1/500

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello again Nikhil,

Thank you for this image of a rather unusual - and cute looking - garden visitor:)

IMO the eye of the Snapping Turtle is the most attractive element in this frame. I also like the visible skin folds, rough-looking /rugged forehead, and beak-like mouth:)

I have never encountered the species in real life so a bit difficult to comment on colours, without proper knowledge I can only give you my impression. I take it the green patches must be algae, right? Not sure about the Turtle itself, but tempted to ask if you could drop the saturation on the blue and magenta.

Lovely detail in the eye and I like the reflection, I personally would have liked more depth of field as the mouth of the subject appears a tad soft. Another reason for that could be the relatively slow Shutter Speed. At the same time I do realise you were trying to avoid an overpowering, busy BG. Image a bit dark overall and I am certain you could extract more detail in places - I took the liberty to take this into PSCC to try demonstrate what I meant about detail and exposure, kindly let me know what you think?

I sincerely hope to see you posting again here in Wildlife. Enjoyed viewing, thank you so much for sharing!

Kind regards,

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

Thanks Gabriela for the suggestions and repost :S3:

The colors are fairly accurate, I have dropped down the saturation in the magentas/blues yet it is still purplish, I used to think myself that these were brown having seen them only under water in murky ponds. It is indeed algae and the garden is a fair way away from any waterbody so this turtle must have traveled relatively far. I've gone back to LR and lifted the darks like you did and also increased clarity and readjusted the crop slightly, I'm still not totally happy with the colors but that's just another reason to keep a gray card handy and shoot it for future :w3. Here's my repost

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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Nikhil, nice to see a new species here.

Not a great POV, however it shows the head, albeit I would have liked to have seen those 'vice' like jaws and for it to have been in the water (in an ideal world).

Sadly I'm away and viewing on the laptop, but the image looks/appears dark and based on the histogram, you could have opened up the EV by at least 2/3rds of a stop. If you don't use it, then learn the ETTR method and learning to read your Histogram, it will save you a lot of time and the image will be better overall prior to any PP.

Upping your ISO would have helped to have gained a fraction more DoF & SS, but balanced out when you + the EV comp.

Just adding my 2 cents, albeit not ideal via the laptop.

TFS
Steve

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Nakhil

Steve has done what i hoped for, and more...
Do you have any frontal images at a low angle?
Nice to see this snapper here!

[Gabriela Plesea]

I like your RP much better, Nikhil. Although I have to admit Steve's is as good as it gets - so lots to learn from him, for us both:w3

Do not know what software you use but just a thought, you can work on WB in Lightroom with the WB selector. Should you wish to receive more detailed feedback, maybe a good idea to describe your processing steps in the future:)

Hope you share more images, I certainly look forward to see more from your folders:S3:

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Nikhil - Another welcome to the Wildlife Forum! Great to see a different species and Steve's rp is on target for me. I too wish for a lower pov and/or more dof. Interesting that there are no bodies of water nearby. I hope you'll share more images in Wildlife.

TFS,
Rachel

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

Thanks Steve, yours and Gabriela's posts are also much sharper than mine, especially the nose. How did you do that? :S3: When I try to use clarity it gives me a very crisp look so I tend to be conservative with that slider. Will keep ETTR in mind and consciously look for histograms, I usually do but obviously on this one I did not. The picture I took just before this one was of roses in the garden and I had to underexpose by a stop to not blow the red channel and that setting was unchanged for this one. Regardless, lesson learnt :S3:

Gabriela, I use mainly Lightroom 4. I will look at WB more closely in future.

Andre, thanks.

Rachel, thank you for the welcome!

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[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Nikhil


Thanks Steve, yours and Gabriela's posts are also much sharper than mine, especially the nose.

Firstly, having a good exposure to work with will help make the the image 'sharper' so to speak, because the mid tones are where your detail is and so you can see more, not clogged with too much shadow/Darks. A good spread of data across the Histogram Axis, not clipping either Black or White makes for a good start. With all digital files you need to sharpen, there are a few folk who post here that do not sharpen, wrong move, digital is not like film. Each image needs to be tackled separately, as each image is not the same and so at times you may find you need to apply more or less sharpening.

Clarity only adds 'Contrast' and so crispens up the edges and so it defines things more, push the slider and you will get a very Contrast/Grunge looking image, use it wisely and depending on the Software version you are using.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Nikhil -- Pretty late to join here but i like the posting because it is altogether a new specie and also a first time for me to see it . I liked the suggestions and discussion on the same and would go for Steve's RP if it was my image .

TFS !