Basking, but no sun, just our reflection!

[Warren Spreng]

I have been crazy busy so haven't had much time for any photography, but at my National Sales Meeting we celebrated my upcoming retirement (April 1st!) and my reps got me a gift certificate and I quickly used it to upgrade my camera to the Canon 7D Mark II. I love it! I have only been out a couple of times to work with it, and this was on a walk at our nearby park on an overcast afternoon. Loved the stillness of the water even though it was extremely muddy from the heavy rains it gave some great reflections to this trio. With the Tamron SP 150 - 600 at 450mm, f/6.3, 1/1250, ISO800, HH. Slight boost in vibrance, a little blurring of the BG in PS CC and cloned out some of the brighter reflections in the water. I left some of the smaller "sparkles" as I felt it added to the scene.

[Glennie Passier]

Warren, Congrats on your upcoming retirement!

I love the three in almost identical pose. What a great find. The guy in the middle is missing the mossy carapace. The reflections are gorgeous. You've managed to get them all in focus. I'm torn on a bit of CCW rotation. I do like it as presented. Just one bright spot between the first and second that I would get rid of.

Have fun with the new lens and I hope we see a lot more!

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Glennie! You were right, I did just a little CCW rotation and now the area where the log meets the water is horizontal. I also removed that bright spot and two other minor ones that were catching my eye.

[Glennie Passier]

Yep, I'm glad that spot is gone. And the rotation is good.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Warren - I really like the way these 3 are all lined up and have their heads up. Pretty good head angles too. I just thought it could use a bit more punch, particularly the reflection. Here's a repost in which I gave the midtones a boost with a curves layer, more so in the reflection than the main subjects. I also got rid of the spots in the water. I don't normally clone but I found the spots very distracting and its easy to do with the spot healing brush if it is within your ethics. I also reduced the blues and cyans in the shells. I may have overdone the adjustments but wanted you to be able to easily see them.

TFS,
Rachel

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks for the comments Rachel, I really like the adjustments to the reflections, maybe a little dark overall but I think that is a matter of taste. I used the spot healing brush on some really bright spots but had left the others since to me they were somewhat ethereal and the turtles were looking at them. But again, that's a matter of taste and I'm still deciding whether to leave them or not! I had 6 people look at both and they were split exactly 50/50!!

The more I look at this I would like someone to explain to me how we can see a reflection of nearly the top of their shells when they are above the water?? I assume it is from the angle that I am looking at them and that line of sight would reflect at that same angle from the turtles, but to me it almost looks like I took the image, copied it, flipped it over and pasted it back in!!

[Warren Spreng]

Yep, I'm glad that spot is gone. And the rotation is good.

Thanks Glennie!

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful catch!! I'm a little conflicted about the brightness of the middle turtle's carapace. I might do a quick selection of it in PS and darken it a little. Or it might work just to pull down Highlights in ACR/LR and compensate with a little lightening of Shadows. Lots of possibilities. Rachel's cleanup is good and I like the darker reflection; but it has maybe gone a little dark and low in contrast.

I might crop from the top just enough to get rid of the bright spot in the UR -- not to get rid of it, primarily, but to balance the turtles in the center. Nothing is happening near the top to balance their weight, which feels a little low in the frame.

Each point of reflection is the perspective as viewed from that point on the water. We can see more of the undersides of their necks but you're right that their shells do look odd. The necks are sticking up farther from the water while there is less angle on the shells, if that makes sense. And their curvature makes the different perspective look even less.

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Diane! Good suggestions. Here is a RP with the suggestions from everyone. I decided to remove the bright spots, adjusted the mid tones in the reflection and brought down the brightness of the shell of the middle turtle. I also adjusted the crop just a bit to remove some of the top. I do like these changes! Thanks for all of the input!

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful!

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks!