Seal
Canon 5D
Canon F/2.8 300mm with 1x4 TCiii
f/8
1/1250
ISO 640
I was out photographing birds yesterday, when I saw this seal. On post processing, I found it very different from doing my usual birds.
Any advice on photographing these animals and on processing on CS6 would be very much appreciated
Thanks
William
Hi William, good to see you taking a break from birds, good variety means different demands and will bolster your learning curve.
Is this the 5D or 5Dmk3? Overall it appears you have lightened the image, it's quite noisy, likewise the clarity, detail & sharpness is lacking, what was the EV. Was this resting on the beach/sand? If this is FF then it's too tight, lose the 1.4, if not you need more at the foot of the image.
If this is a new body, fire off the RAW next week I'll have a look, you may need to get it calibrated with and without the 1.4 as it only magnifies, nothing more. If you do need to send it to Canon let me know.
Cheers
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Steve. It's the Mk3. Here is another cropped version of the image. The seal was on a rock I was on the beach with the sun behind me.
Cheers William ..
and here is the uncropped version
Hi William - I think the biggest issue and the cause of the loss of IQ is from the huge crop. Additionally, the seal and rock are underexposed so when you lightened them you introduced noise. I have the 5D3 as well but would never crop that drastically even if exposure and sharpness were spot on. Your PP workflow should not be much different for wildlife from what you do for birds. I'm sure Steve can get you on the right track.
TFS,
Rachel
You caught a cute and pensive look from the seal. Artistically, with that much extra canvas, I'd experiment with quite a bit of CCW rotation -- I have the feeling that the seal is about to fall over, although I do understand that that was it's natural pose. But that might be an experiment that fails, as the falling-over look is possibly part of the charm.
Technically, good advice from Steve and Rachel. In a case like this with a dark subject and a light BG, you need to expose for the subject and let the BG go white, as increasing exposure in RAW will only bring up noise. That is greatly magnified by a big crop. A good case for using M exposure, or at least spot exposure on the small subject. Flash can be an advantage is a situation like this, too.
Hi William the RP looks better overall, but would lose about half the space on the RHS, it can take it, that's about it for me.
For the future William it's good to add the EV and if this is FF, or an approx crop. Providing it's not a nursing Mum, or in the bedding season and providing you move low, quietly and stop start in your approach you should be able to get a little closure than this. If they seem agitated or show signs of unease, back off, but always keep an eye on your surroundings every now and then as you can get so engrossed you may not hear/notice others moving closer.
When are you off to Mull?
cheers
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
thanks Steve, I am off to Mull on 6th May
cheers William
Super sweet, William. Techs as discussed above are a bit beyond me... but do agree with Diane on the CCW rotation.... with the crop, it does appear the the little one is "falling over". Color on the cropped image is so different that the uncropped... which is closer to their natural color?
www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.
Probably the cropped version Sandy
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