Elephant Seal in Falkland Islands

[Nancy Bell]

I dip my toe into this theme with great trepidation. I have not experimented with B&W conversions and look to this as a way to learn to "swim in the deep end of the pool" and yet have some support and guidance. So here it is goes into public view.

I first approached this image with usual PS adjustments for the color image. Then I used the PS b&w conversion palette & the sliders, then adjusted with curves separately for the bkgd and the elephant seal. I did this several times. I know I repeatedly deleted layers and then worked again on various parts so I cannot say now exactly what I did.

Comments and critiques most welcome and appreciated!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Nancy - careful, experimenting can become addictive. I am by no means an expert on toned or b&w images. What I look for in choosing an image that might work well as one is generally a greater tonal variety in the image. I could be wrong but it doesn't look like there was a lot of tonal variety between the seal, the water and the bg here. That being said I think you've done a good job but think a bit more contrast will take it up a notch. Try taking it into PS and applying a basic S curve adjustment to the seal only. Gives it a bit more punch. I'm sure others will jump in with other suggestions.

TFS,
Rachel

[John Robinson]

Not into this ps stuff Nancy but all I can say is - it looks ok to me. Funny how in the old days we dreamed for years of decent colour film and now we go back to monochrome.! I had the chance to lead wildlife tours for the falklands tourist board many years back and turned it down ! Like everything I suppose its gets boring when yousee it every day.
Anyway a nice image whatever.
John

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I like it, Nancy! That 'hand' is freeky human-like!

I've never been into B&W so I'm still going back & forth in PP with one or two attempts I might submit during the month. My last thought before going to bed last night was 'I'll have to start all over'...

[Morkel Erasmus]

That hand is a bit unsettling!

I agree with Rachel here, Nancy - a similar issue as I just posted in Martin's buffalo - the water and sand are competing too much with your subject tonally here.
I usually go for a double-conversion in shots like this...one conversion to get the tones of the subject the way I want them and then another conversion for the surroundings (filtering out various combinations of the colours to get more or less what I see in my mind's eye), then blend the 2 together...and add some more dodging and burning afterwards.

Perhaps that would be the way to go here...

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Nancy ,
cool pose of the seal .
Agree with Morkel about the tones in the image, and good suggestions by him and Rachel .
The seal looks a bit like you used S/H adjustment on the body ?

TFS Andreas

[Marc Mol]

Agree on the limited tonal range here, but an interesting subject for sure Nancy, that hand is freaky in a human/primate way

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you every one for your suggestions. Here is a repost. I used a basic S curve adjustment on the seal. Then a curves adjustment to lighten the bkgd plus a shadows/highlight adjustment. I recropped to more of a pano image. How now?

[Gabriela Plesea]

Oh Nancy, I love the moment captured here, as you know I am also experimenting with conversions so still learning, my only suggestions would be that you try lighten the eye by a tad, also - some more detail can be extracted around the nostrils and mouth. I like the pose very much, as well as the so-called "hand"

Unlike John, I never get bored of seeing it every day, it is always different, always special, and I can always find a new angle to the same story...I certainly look forward to more from you, thank you for this lovely post

Kind regards,