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Thread: Late afternoon Seal

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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Default Late afternoon Seal

    Name:  sunlit-seal.jpg
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    After a frustrating day unsuccessfully hunting short eared owls I decided to try and get a few shots in the bag of the seals in reasonable light. This one gave me a little look with some nice light catching her eye

    Canon 1dx
    500mm f4 is
    1/500th f 7.1
    ISO 4000

    Distracting twig cloned out

    Mike

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    Hi Mike -- Nice roll over look and looks very sharp . Though i am not familiar with its colours but i think the blues are quite strong in here excluding its face which is lightened by nice natural light . Lets see what others have to say .

    TFS !

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    Hi Mike,the head and the face looks very detailed and sharp,not sure about the body that I presume was wet making it look very blue.

    Keith.

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    Hi Mike,

    Great details on this guy. I agree that the body looks quite blue, but you were there so I'll leave the colors to you. I would suggest maybe moving the crop up a bit if you have room, i.e. adding more to the top and removing some of the OOF bottom, or just a bit more room on top. Perhaps also consider some more noise reduction, the shadow to the right has some noise but of course not a deal breaker. Thanks for sharing!

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Mike lovely typical Seal pose you captured and I like the inquisitive look she gave you .
    Comp does work well for me , just the right amount of space around her and you did well with the shooting angle at Donna Nook , very difficult to get low there !!!!!
    Overall color does look quite good to me , the Seal can get blue , very blue if you have blue skies , so no issue for me on the seal , but i would darken them and reduce them completely in the soil/ grass .
    As a matter of taste from my side ... i might overthink your LCE and/or sharpening ..as the detail does look very contrasty and coarse , just thought .But if you like it that way ... leave it .

    Nice one , TFS Andreas

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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Thanks Alex, welcome to the forum, hope to see you around more.

    The colours are unusual on this one, but they are pretty accurate to the scene as it was. I'm happy with the crop, but have done an RP with a bit more NR on the BG as per your suggestion.

    thanks for the comments

    Mike

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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Hi Andreas, good to hear from you again!

    Good shout with the blues in the BG, I've reduced them on the RP below.

    I'm not sure what you're referring to with the LCE, and I'm not overly happy with the sharpening if I'm totally honest here. What I'm finding with shooting higher ISO's is I'm getting a more crunchy look which I need to improve on. It seems to be OK until I reduce the file size (I use PS with image -> image size, then size up appropriately). Any suggestions will be tried out!

    Mike

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Mike as i do not know what you are doing with the file .... i can just dig blindly dig in the dirt . With LCE is meant Local Contrast Enhancement ( various 3rd party filters work that way i.e. NIK etc . ) ... just wondering where the crunchiness is coming from ?
    Would be good for better understanding if you could open your workflow and we can find the reason for that a bit easier .
    From my POV you must have used something like an contrast enhancer in your WF .
    Cheers Andreas

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Mike - Nice low pov and look from the seal. Interesting about the blues. I am ok with the comp as is though I can also see a version with the head/face less centered if you have more room. The sharpening on the rp still looks a little strong. What sharpening method are you using and when in your workflow?

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Mike, looks like there was some warm light coming through based on the FG grass which has added to the capture.

    I don't go WOW sadly on the composition and without the slight head to camera I'm unsure where this was going, although bolting on the 1.4 you could have emphasised more of the head/facial qualities?? IMHO, having any wet fur can be an issue when sharpening any subject, so I might try just backing off a fraction, or selectively vary the amounts, as I've found it can appear over sharp (as this is perceptual) sharpening, nothing more. In DPP can you see where the FP was, to me it looks more around the nose rather than that nearest eye, as there is more detail/clarity around the nose??? So a great DoF I think would have helped and just crank up the ISO, as the eyes are the elements that engage, if they are soft then it really don't matter what else is sharp.

    Mike, I feel in your series of Seal shots you are really coming to task on you ISO and having the confidence to push and get the results, well done, as anything else is just a honing element/exercise.

    TFS
    Steve

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Mike this is another cute look/pose.
    You received some good feedback which I won't rehash - but the blues are still very strong even in your repost.
    It can be handled on the eventual finished file but I prefer handling colour issues in RAW via the White Balance setting bars.
    Morkel Erasmus

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