Caught this guy around the fishing dock in Victoria Harbor BC. A fishing boat had just come in and the prospect of fish scraps was too much to resist.
1D MK4, 70-300 4-5.6 L IS @ 300, 1/800 @ 6.3, ISO 1600. Overcast and cold.
Thanks, Tom.
Caught this guy around the fishing dock in Victoria Harbor BC. A fishing boat had just come in and the prospect of fish scraps was too much to resist.
1D MK4, 70-300 4-5.6 L IS @ 300, 1/800 @ 6.3, ISO 1600. Overcast and cold.
Thanks, Tom.
Hi Tom- great head on and low pov. I like how the whiskers pop. I'm guessing the slightly green cast to the water is natural and don't have a problem with it. Central placement works too here. I would however try a little more selective sharpening on the nose.
TFS,
Rachel
Hi Tom, great image, love the almost monochromatic look & feel, but keeping the eyes with a hint of colour has taken it up a notch.
Wonder if there is another crop alternative, not sure about the central position, is this FF or cropped, perhaps half the space above? I'm not sure if selective sharpening on the nose will help, I think it's more a DOF issue sadly, but perhaps some more on the eyes.
I assume Tom afterwards you popped into the Empress for afternoon tea to warm up.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

Lovely image Tom, i like the monochrome look, pity about the dof with the oof nose but not a biggie, agree the yes and head could do with another round of sharpening. I would consider a more pano crop buy bringing down from the top.
Hey Tom,
Agree with the observations above especially the DOF and crop from top. I think sacrificing a bit of SS for the DOF was the way to go in the field.....difficult given how quickly these guys surface!
Tom,
A centralized placement of the seals head is your best composition. It comes down to cropping. I tried a tighter crop with less room a bottom. I feel this increases the intimacy of the shot. BUt something like this I would crop multiple ways and live with it for a while to see how I felt.
DOF covered and I think here trying for more of it would be justified. I did two things in the repost. NIK CEP white neutralizer to get rid of the green giving you a almost B&W look with those red eyes. I sharpened the whole image. The head might need less, the the nose is an improvement. Noise in the water has become apparent with the sharpening.
Cool shot Tom and I like the subtle hint of color to the eyes and water. I find myself liking a different crop than suggested above, moving him a tiny bit up and to the right of center. Also liked the look of some slightly darker water with a touch of added contrast and sharpening to the seal.
Re-post with some suggestions taken on.
I kept the green as this was the color of the water.
This guy popped up for a few second then dropped back down again.
Hi Tom,
like the cool color effect with the slight red eyes.
I am fine with the shallow DOF and the RP for tone, contrast and composition.
But i would try to open up the eyes to give them a bit more life.
TFS Andreas
the biggest issue for me is DOF, which has been covered
it's got an eerie feel with the monochrome/red contrast - was that natural or did you desaturate the seal some, Tom?
These guys do have a red coloration to their eyes. There was no sunlight because it was so overcast giving the monochrome look. I ran a contrast mask on the seal only and only sharpened the seal on another layer. I think from memory I added +1 of red in selective color and added about 8 to the saturation of all colors.
It would be great if PS could give you a little click box with a read out of what you did to an image. I often can not remember what I did to an image without opening up a file and looking at each layer.
As for DOF would you focus on the nose and let the DOF cover the eyes or focus on the eyes and let the DOF cover the nose? I was about 6 meters away and the distance from nose to eyes would have been as a guess 6 inches or so. How small of a aperture would you have needed to get all on focus?
Last edited by Tom Rambaut; 01-20-2013 at 11:55 PM.