Hello !

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi all .....
greetings from a little Helgoland Grey Seal pup .
A rather unusual shot i guess , and a experiment for me after a longer time ... going straight forward with my editing .
So here you have a different detail of the seals , part of the youngster i posted recently . Original was taken as is , apart from cropping something from the top . The BG was partially dark due to the bull lying in BG .
So i wanted the B/W straight after i saw the image on my screen .
My goal was to go not too extreme and i have chosen a mixed conversion with a tiny bit of silvery look & feel to it , because i felt if go plain B/W i will loose that fur of the pup , if you know what i mean .

I actually really like what i did ,wonder what all you critical viewers think , don´t be shy all comments are really welcome .

Canon EOS 1Dx
EF 500 IS L II + 2x TC
Tripod + Gimbal

F 10 ; Iso 2000; 1/2500 sec

Processed with DPP 4 and PS CC ; i used a BW film preset from EXPOSURE 7 as a base conversion and created the silvery look somehow in a mixture of experiments , not sure if i can repeat that
Cropped from top for comp and left a hint of light tone in the BG

Thanks for watching and commenting to my previous posting .

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi Andreas -- I really liked what you tried to achieve with this image. I liked the details in the fur and it is standing out against the black backdrop , nice choice of DOF here . You have managed to achieve what you wished with the on field and PP work but somehow i am still not able to get drawn in this image , might be something missing or lacking which i am unable to explain . But yes this is very subjective , so lets see what others have to say . And btw i see a whitish haze on the Right corner edge of the subject .

TFS !

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andreas, I like the 'arty' look and feel to this and the choice of both conversion and format works well IMHO, although viewing on laptop so will leave it to others to be a bit more 'analytical', as I know you often like that. For continuity, I might suggest you look at the area of fur/BKG on the RHS where the colour isn't so rich/patchy, perhaps a little tricky, but I feel it would be worth a revisit.

TFS
Steve

[keith mitchell]

Think that you have achieved what you set out for with the texture and the silver colour of the fur, admire the fact that you are trying and succeeding to make a picture with just a small part of the animal without eyes and nose whiskers which do help ,hope you get my drift, very well done Andreas .

Keith.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - You have achieved what you set out to do so well done on that count. I like the silvery look. Agree with Steve about the fur but wonder if the different texture there is due to when the flipper is tucked in. Unfortunately, like Haseeb, the image just isn't grabbing me or causing me to have any emotional connection to it. Sorry.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thank you so much Haseeb, Keith , Steve and Rachel for your comments , much appreciated .
I was for sure expecting various comments as this is more OOTB so one might think other than the other , all good for me .

Steve i was pretty unsure of how much leaving of the patchy BG or going totally black ???? so i decided to a tiny bit of luminance in there . Still pretty unsure though as with hindsight i might have left even more of the patches and going lighter in the BG for more variation instead of very dark BG , always a matter of taste i guess. But good to know other thoughts regarding this .
As a demo how tricky it was to keep the RHS as " clean" as possible interns of hair edges i just upload the original " out of cam " raw . As there was not much tonal/ color difference in the LRC .

Rachel no problem if it does not grab you ..... as long as it does grab me and some others i am fine .

Cheers Andreas

[Anette Mossbacher]

Well Andreas, I think different. The first post looks a tad, an ja, the usual impression when the BG is more or less solid black. Mostly used for zoo 'pictures' by ....

However, when I see the repost as it is you can do some real good catch image out of it. Just do not do the BG this ugly solid black or dark grey. I personally do not like that kind of images at all, but this is a matter of taste of course. Oh and how the subject jumps out of that blackness darkness BG

have a great day

ciao Anette

[Morkel Erasmus]

Andreas, well done on executing a vision from field-to-processing!
I like the details and the silvery look. The image does not make me leap out of my seat, but it did make me look a while longer, it held my attention (if only for figuring out what I was looking at and what perspective it was).

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Anette and Morkel for sharing your thoughts and leave the comments , much appreciated .

Anette yes it could remind of one of this images created with a zoo animal .... but as it is not it is different to me .
Morkel i was not expecting someone might leap from the couch .... when looking at the image , if one takes a closer and longer look , i am already happy .

Cheers Andreas