Hate sand in my eye...!

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys

A NZ fur seal sitting on the beach of my home town in New Zealand... I have posted a close up of this guy before but thought this frame might look alright in B&W and hence provide my contribution to the monthly theme. Processed in ACR, converted into B&W in PS, slightly lightened the BG, fiddled in the Exposure, Offset and Gamma layer until I was happy and finally a bit of selective sharpening of the head. I found the EOG layer a pretty powerful tool, likely to be too powerful for this B&W bunny (beginner...)

1D4 + 550 F4, 1/800 sec @ F7.1, ISO 800. Hand held,~ 80% full frame

Happy Easter to you all!

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Don - For me, one of your best. I like the low pov and great detail. The toning and conversion work well. I am of two minds on the comp, I like the intimate feel but wonder what it would look like with just a little more space all around, or particularly below. If it were mine I might back off on the sharpening of the sand just a little. Well done!

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Railton]

Thanks Rachel...! I have a little more space, pretty sure I did not sharpen the sand although maybe after downsizing...will check.

Best regards

Don


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Don Railton]

Full frame repost, reprocessed from scratch, a little sharpening on nose only, nothing after resizing...looks like the BG is a shade darker, not what I wanted but its late...

[Gabriela Plesea]

Very, very well done, Don! I appreciate the fact that you went back and done an RP, this image deserves it! I really like what you have done here, great capture and the sharpening is just right, great pose from the subject and I just love those bits of sand flying all over the place! Enjoyed viewing this and looking forward to more images from you

Kind regards,

[Colin Driscoll]

Very good Don, particularly the RP. Lighting is just right to give the animal some depth.

[Don Railton]

Hi Rachel, Gabriela and Colin,

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement. Nice to get a B&W a bit closer to the mark...

regards

Don

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Don - I prefer the framing of the rp and the sharpness of the sand in the rp but like the toning in the op a little better. Perhaps you can get there with some selective dodging and burning. I would also selectively sharpen the fur seal a little more in the rp. It's an image worth working on.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Don,
agree with Rachel about being one of your best so far.
In the field you could have gone lower for a really low POV , makes a different image i think. Just saying this without knowing the location.
I like the conversion and the tones in the OP , like wise the sharpening .The sharpness in the sand does not bother me , but i would back off in general on sharpening , not much though.
I am fine with the framing.

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Don, a wee bit tight all round for me and like Andreas, I would have liked a slightly lower PoV with more space in the FG rather than above. To me the image looks a little flat, just darkening the rear helps, but overall I feel there isn't enough tonal range to work as a B/W as presented.

TFS
Steve

[Don Railton]

Hi Andreas ad Steve,
Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. I could have got lower by getting dirty and if that's what it takes...

Steve, I did lighten the BG to provide better separation / distinction between the seal and bg... A Bad move in your opinion? Also, when you talk about tonal range I assume you talking about the seal only, because darkening the bg as you suggested is closing up the tonal range even more.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Steve Kaluski]

A Bad move in your opinion?

No.

Also, when you talk about tonal range I assume you talking about the seal only

Yep.