Last light Sea Lion
During a family boat trip last year we found this large Sea Lion catching the last of the warm rays just as the sun was starting to disappear below the horizon directly behind us.
November 3, 2013 @ 5:23pm
Techs | Canon 1d Mark IV | 500mm F4 II | 6.3 | 1/1000 | ISO2500 | Manual | Handheld on-board boat - I am looking forward to one day using my 1D and 500mm in conditions favourable to ISO800 and below.
Cheers
Jamie
Last edited by Jamie Douglas; 02-28-2014 at 12:09 AM.
Hi Jamie - nice of him to pose on the ridge for you. I like the comp and it's something different to see the trees in the bg rather than sand, rocks or water. If it were mine I would do a levels adjustment and bring the right slider in toward 240-242 (the guano will light up as you make the adjustment but nothing important will) and perhaps open the midtones slightly as well. Just gives the image a lift. There's a slight halo around the sea lion, most evident along the chest.
TFS.
Rachel
Thanks Rachel, once I posted this I realised it was a tad flat looking. I like the Sea Lion detail but find the rocks and BG could benefit from a little lift in texture and tone. I'll play around with the levels as you suggest over the weekend and post an improved verson.Originally Posted by Rachel Hollander
As for the halo, you mean a sharpening halo right? You've picked up on that in previous images of mine so let me revist my technique - maybe I was a little slap dash last night.
Cheers and if we don't touch base later today, have yourself a good weekend.
Jamie
Jamie, Rachel beats me to it regarding opening up the mid tone and the halo. The warm, golden sunlight in the BG makes a nice contarst with the darker rock and subject. ISO-2500 looks pretty good here I thought. Loi
A quick rework using the auto correction in the Adobe iphone app but I'll spend more time on this over the weekend while I am not at work.
It certainly gave the image more pop!
Not a bad repost for a phone app.
Lovely scene and depth, IQ looks good given the techs. I dig the contrast/texture in the rock.
Hi Jamie - the rp is a move in the right direction. Halo might be more pronounced. It's a bright white halo around the sea lion, not sure if it is a sharpening halo or from selective adjustments.
Have a great weekend,
Rachel
Hi Jamie, can't comment on colour, but the RP has some odd colours appearing compared to the OP, see the flipper, purple?
I like the overall concept, framing and initial colour, good shooting based on the situation. FG rocks look a little over sharp, just your layers or opacity to get the right look.
Jamie, don't get hung up about kit, what you have is great and will do the job well, you just need more time out in the field, but hard I know and it is a fine juggling act.
TFS
Steve
PS -17 at mid station, village is a barmy -7 a present.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Jamie,
nice image design with the golden light in the BG and the more subtle FG.Typical but still nice pose of the Sea Lion.
I do not think Auto correction is the way to go, maybe on the Xbox but not in PS……..
I think it worth it to spent some more time in tonal and some color tweaks to give the image more depth .
TFS Andreas
I had a chance to revisit the RAW file this afternoon.
WDYT? This image is bugging me as it's starting to move into the over processed category IMO. I know it needs a boost but something natural is lacking so I might start again from scratch and avoid making the image look too flat. When I beefed it up this afternoon it started to get crunchy looking.
Steve, I am happy with my gear, I was just commenting that I'd like to try it out in better light conditions. I want to make sure the lens is as sharp as it should be - talk more on that next outing. You are being spoiled with all this fresh snow.
Rachel, the area around the sea lion looks the same in the RAW file. I think it is just the lighting effect rather than a processing halo as I haven't made any significant adjustments to the exposure in layers that could create a halo but I could be wrong as maybe my eyes are not trained on that yet.
Last edited by Jamie Douglas; 03-02-2014 at 06:47 PM.
Hi Jamie - I think you may be better off putting the image down for a few days and then going back to it or starting over. I took your last rp and did a couple of levels adjustments, one globally and one just to the sea lion and rocks but both bringing in the right slider and opening the midtones. I also dropped the blues in hue/saturation. I applied a linear contrast curves adjustment just to the sea lion and rock. Finally I darkened the bg slightly. This just gives you an idea of where I would go with the image but it may be a bit overcooked and going back to the raw file would be better. WDYT?
Rachel
Rachel, I like where you have taken this so thank you for taking the effort and I'll re work this later in the week with fresh eyes. The image has grown on me a lot over the last few days so it'll be worth my time working on this and your suggestions will help when I revisit the RAW.
Cheers
Jamie
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