Baleen Whale Lookalike

[Norm Dulak]

D7000 w/Nikkor 28-300mm lens @ 160mm, hand held
ISO Equivalent 400; f/13, 1/400 sec
Standard CS6 adjustments w/ crop; NIK Nature filter package

Baleen whales are characterized by what are called "baleen plates," that filter food from the water. This image of an ice formation, captured near the Antarctic Fish Islands, bears structures remarkably similar to the filtering plates of baleen whales.

Any comments or suggestions you may have of this image will as always be welcome.

Norm

[Don Railton]

Very interesting ice formation Norm... we might need to find a few more of these if whaling continues in the Southern Ocean, just to remind us of what we are loosing.. I think this could stand a little more sharpening and a slightly looser frame...

DON

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks, Don. Here's a repost along the lines you've suggested.

[Don Railton]

HI Norm

I do like this a lot better composition wise, especially because it now includes repetition of form (that's a very nice bonus IMHO...) and a skyline, however the whites are a bit too hot for me... I choose to keep my whites 240 to 245 ish at the maximum, some of these are at 254 & 255... others might choose a different value for their maximums. Personally, I find my eye tends to look away from overly bright areas.


best regards

DON

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Norm, now that is a cool pattern in the ice...repost works best for me.

[Dvir Barkay]

seems like a decent crop, so that seems to be the reason its slightly soft, but could be the jpeg compression. Overall its a bit tight, but love the shapes and the whale like structure.

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks, everyone. Here's a rework of the OP with a little more sharpening.

[Morkel Erasmus]

A very interesting scene, Norm. I actually prefer your wider frame. The cropped image looks very smooth overall, as if you overdid noise reduction in RAW conversion??
You know you can post up to 1200px wide, right? That would help us appreciate the image more - it's especially the case with more panoramic presentations.

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks, Morkel. As always, I appreciate your critique.

But as for your remarks concerning the smoothness of the cropped image, I'll offer two comments. First, at ISO equivalent 400 I generally don't apply any noise reduction and did not do so here. Secondly, that smoothness you've observed is probably due to an unfortunate lapse on my part -- I inadvertently neglected to apply any sharpening to my OP. I never did that before and will hopefully never do it again!