Elephant Seal Bulls Fighting In Surf

[BillTyler]

It's breeding time for northern elephant seals, and these two bulls were fighting in the surf at Piedras Blancas. The rough scarring on the neck and chest area is the result of numerous such battles. The squiggles that look a little like sensor dirt are actually bits of seaweed picked up by the surf.

Canon 5Dmk3 with Canon 500mm f/4 lens
1/500 f/11 ISO 400

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Bill, this is more like it, nice interaction and a good backdrop too.

I feel with this you needed more SS to freeze the action, so dropping the DoF to say f/5.6 will help, you may also need just a bit more ISO too, however if you work around 1/2500sec should be good. The angle maybe due as you say, not being allowed on the beach, but if you were, then a slightly lower POV would be nice, however... A good friend of mind was photographing Beach Masters in the Galapagos with his back to the waves, not a good idea, as the seventh wave engulfed him and all of his Nikon kit! It took three days to dry out and defog.

Just quickly looking at the image, in Levels the Blacks do fall short, cranking it right to around 6 I think helps, but just watch the shadows. Likewise adding a Luminosity layer just gives a bit more richness to the image. I noted your comment about the seaweed, if however you are happy, then removing it does help IMHO.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Bill - Steve has covered it well. If it were mine I would definitely bring up the blacks and also tame the highlights more. I really like the wall of water as the bg and am of 2 minds on the crop. It works as is but I think an alternative crop that works is to come down from the top eliminating the flat part of the water at the top so only the wall of water is there.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love the action here, and I don't mind the LHS one being slightly motion-blurred while the RHS one is sharp.
The wave being in focus works well, most would have intuitively gone for aperture wide open here. I agree it lacks some punch in the blacks, some contrast selectively applied will work well, Bill.
Looking forward to more of your work!

[BillTyler]

Thanks Steve, Rachel, and Morkel for all the help! I've reworked the image a bit.

Bill