Rainwater 'Gator

Continuing on my water-with-gator theme ...... here is a gator with water that looks like it's getting rain. Only it's not -- those are actually hundreds of very small minnows making those little circles. Again I liked the look of colors and the texture in the "rain" water. Add gator, and this is what you get:


Attachment 164045


Sony a77ii, Tamron 150-600, 400mm at f6.3, 1/1000sec at ISO 1250

In LRRCC: no crop, Exposure -2.00, Contrast +20, small adjustments in Highlights and Shadows just to eliminate some darker areas.



As a reference, here is the original (no edits) at close to 100%, focus on the eye -- wanted to see if this one seems sharper than the previous.


Attachment 164046


Again, thanks in advance for your C&C.


AP

Andrew from my screen looks under exposed. Way too dark. If the exposure isn't correct will introduce noise.
Again keep at it. I shoot lots and not very many high quality photos but I have fun and like the challenge.
I still have lots to learn and BPN is the place to get good critiques.

the crop is not 100% so its hard to say if the original capture was sharp or not

the image is severely dark, I am not sure if it was underexposed or if you made it darker by applying -2EV.

TFS

This is the way it should look when exposed properly. You are more than a stop underexposed. Nice frame though and I think it looks sharp enough.

Andrew, I hope you can run fast if needed. I wouldn't be within cooee of the crocs we have here.

I love what David has done here, and would hope this is the direction you were heading with the image. The water looks like that old glass. Beautiful! I could suggest a little slice off the top, but like it as posted.

Well done!

Folks: Thanks for the comments. I have an old computer with a very poor monitor that sometimes gives me funny results when viewing at different times (certain angles, at night, with additional lighting, etc.). Think this was one of those occasions where I dropped exposure in LR way too much, but on my monitor it seemed ok at the time (perhaps a little dark for some tastes).

David: Thanks for the RP -- that is what I was heading for. If you want, I can post original (unedited) so you could see where I was starting from.


AP

Dark as it is I am assuming that you are going for a scary, eery look. Got it there. The lighter exposure certainly shows the croc, but takes away from the effect, I think. Like that the snout is also peeping out.

In case anyone was interested, here was the original, un-edited ....


Attachment 164091

Much like David's RP. I was trying for a bit darker, but somehow went way overboard .....


AP

Andrew, this was certainly a good starting point. You have plenty of room to move, either way; dark or light.

The image is well worth the effort of another attempt. I would try moving exp. sliders to the left a tad and keep working your way down the panel, (I try to avoid the contrast slider) The shadows and highlight slider work best for me. You can use your adjustment brush to select areas that you may wish to darken, or lighten, or add more contrast.

Andrew...I like the idea suggested of slicing some off the top to bring your subject forward more. I like the exposure of David's post because it brings out the textures and color of the water

I like the changes, that is one evil looking dude!