Grey Seal Bull

[Andreas Liedmann]

http://www.bilderload.com/bild/197601/greyseal01USXWW.jpg

Photographed this grey seal amongst a lot of others in Donna Nook RAF Base in East England

EOS 1D Mark III
500 L IS
Tripod
f8 / 1/200 sec /iso 100

processed in RPP and CS5 with NI noise red. followed by self made detail extraction ,levels,curves,lab color and sharpening.

have fun :S3: C&C welcome

cheers andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I like the perspective on this one, even having the main subject central within frame. You have nice detail & clarity, but personally I might suggest you increase your ISO a fraction more, just to get a hint more SS even though it set on a tripod. I would in Saturation drop (minus) all the Blue & the Cyan by at least 50%, as it looks a tad too blue and is not reflective I feel of the location. I assume this was taken towards the later part of last year? Although I want to add some CCW rotation the horizon looks OK, so... :S3:

Look forward to seeing more. Nice to see warm sun, rather than the blowing sands of this location.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

http://www.bilderload.com/bild/197709/greyseal01usxwwPVXQQ.jpg

Hi Steve
thank you for your critique.I tried to correct what you suggested.What do you think about the repost???
I was at Donna in dec 2010.And it was not the warm sun,i felt really cold after some hours of lying in the wet sand.but it was fun all over.
Cheers Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, yes I thought of applying it across the main subject and the sand to get closer to that muddy look, unlike some of the Florida golden sand you might see here posted, LOL. For ISO100 it looks quite 'grainy' did you lighten the face at all? BTW I also dropped the Red too, based on the colouration of the sand on the chest, but all personal preference.

Cheers
Steve

PS What is RPP?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve,

RPP is RAW PHOTO PROCESSOR its a software for mac osx ,its by far the best raw engine in my opinion.Not a lot of people use because it is running in a some how complicated and unusual way.but it is the best software especially if you have overexposed images.when all other software leaves you behind with blown out highlights,in RPP you will get a lot more out of it.but it is very slow with no sliders to adjust and very basic editing . so you have to go to PS to post processing.But if you are on a mac,give it a try.
the grain in the 100 iso shot, is coming from my detail extraction. may be i have overdone a bit.next time i will try to reduce it.my detail extraction comes from so called ``freaky details``. Have a look on the web.I lightened the front part of the bull via lum mask.
But now to your repost:as you said it is a question of personal taste.i like my repost but yours is in my eyes not colorfull enough.simply because i was used to photograph with velvia .

hope you do not mind my suggestion.

but i am new to this forum and like to learn and get feedback of my work.and what i mostly like is that i am coming in this situation to discuss something with a guy like you about my or your pictures.
in a serious way.

so again cheers andreas hope to hear something from you.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, partly grew up with Macs at the beginning of 1990, so a big fan of them, however the RAW software you use is not something i have heard of (no suprises) and I tend to stick to the more well know software out on the market. :S3: Colour & cropping tends to be the areas most people refer to, however more in depth areas are also covered from time to time depending on the requirements the Author is looking for. You may wish to check this out if you have not already, especially 'Help us, help you.'

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/87393-Please-Read-Before-Posting-The-First-Time-and-Then-From-Time-to-Time

Velvia is a fantastic film, very punchy with Reds, Blues & Greens and certainly brings life to an image and like you, I used it a lot, but with advent of Digital you can refine your whole image far more and be able to achieve far more 'realistic' colour, but again, it is personal choice in what/how you wish to portray your images. For me Donna Nook isn't quite the Florida/Galapagos haven, LOL and normally windy, wet and quite often drab, but more importantly where wildlife is well known for coming second compared to the image, but that's another story and not part of this discussion. :w3

There are many facets to this site, take time to browse and my advice would be to include what you what in terms of feedback for your image. In addition, not only post images, but add comments to other posters, you will find it far more rewarding and make some good friends in the process and hopefully realise that it is also a Community if you want it too.

All the best
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

I love the low angle here Andreas. Good discussion between you and Steve, and interesting to hear about the software you use.
I like Steve's repost the most, but still feel it can use some rotation to get the sand-line in front nice and level?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel,
when i first viewed the picture,i was thinking the same as you and Steve.But then i realized that the horizon is rotating and no longer straight,when i rotated it in PS.So try to make the horizon and the sand leveled in the same way,i was not able to do that.!!!! I could have done with a lot of work in PS,but for me i am fine with the not straight sand in front of the seal.

So cheers Andreas

[Nancy Bell]

I really like this straight-on view of the bull and the symmetry of his position. Including other seals in the bkgd, especially the one with the face showing adds a good sense of what is going on. It was interesting to read the give & take of the discussion above.