Grey Seal.

[keith mitchell]

Nikon D300
Nikon 500ml F4
1/250@f8
iso400.

Taken a while back ,did think about working on the BG but knowing me I would probably make it worse, so just toned it down a tad.Do like the mud and bits of ice and snow on the Seal.

[Morkel Erasmus]

A nice look you got, Keith. Sharpness is lacking, however, I think the SS setting let you down. It would have been better to shoot at 1/500 or even 1/800, you could have sacrificed some DOF but even ISO on the D300 should be fine at ISO-800? Was this shot handheld?

[Nancy Bell]

This is a good curious look and I really like all the water droplets on the whiskers. I agree that this is a little soft. For the white bkgd it was mentioned in a previous posting to use a soft cloning brush at reduced opacity, and clone over the white using the soft grays also found in the bkgd. This might not be too hard since the edges of the seal are simple, without loose hair.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Keith - I don't mind what I presume is snow in the bg. Good eye contact and the square comp works on this one. Unfortunately, I agree it's soft and your ss needed to be higher.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Keith, cure face here and those eyes looking straight at you. I'm with Morkel and Rachel on the softness. You need higher SS here I think. TFS. Loi

[keith mitchell]

Thanks folks ,did not add any sharpening when I processed this ,so wonder if this sharpened version is any better.Morkel yes it was hand held.

[Rachel Hollander]

Keith - it is better but the eyes still look soft.

Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Keith, cute head shot of this nice species, i love them. Was this at Donna?
Besides the technical issue,i like the overall tonality and the snow/ice in the face is good.I do not mind about the snow in the BG.I think there is some space on top that would get rid of.But not going too tight.
There is some color noise on the chest that you should address , easy to do in the raw conversion.
TFS Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Adorable little guy, Keith! I like the RP better, and aside from the techs already mentioned above, I think you have captured a very sweet inquisitive pose from this seal. I would crop a tad from the top if this was mine, just to put more emphasis on the subject. A very special image I enjoyed viewing, a lot

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Keith, nice to see you posting here and I like the content.

I agree there is perhaps an issuer re SS & sharpening, but as this was taken a while back I think you know what you needed to do now, plus the 'kit' you have is far better. Applying some more USM, helps, I would also lift the shadow areas in the nose/chin a little and even go square on the format, but A bit more off the top would help.

TFS
Steve