Grey Seal pup under heavy sky

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hello folks ...a very happy new year to all of you , may 2018 become a good one

I start this year with this pup that i shot recently on Helgoland , dramatic skies appeared very quickly and i took the chance to create this shot . As said in previous posts not that easy to achieve with the new rules over there .....as i was way under the limit of distance and had to find a nice subject without being seen by others
The animals are totally relaxed with human presence as long as you do not go too close , specially the youngsters are very curious .But authority does not want that curiosity , they are in fear that the seals will harm humans when being too much used to humans . Well well ......

Canon EOS 1Dx
EF 70-200 2,8 IS L II at 200 mm
HH

F 7,1 ; Iso 800 ; 1/1600 sec

Processed with C1 and PS CC 2018 ; slight crop for comp ; little gardening in FG

Thanks for watching and commenting to my previous thread

Cheers Andreas

[Mitch Carucci]

I love the dark skies that contrast with the lovely expression of the seal pup. Great!

[John Mack]

Love the light here. Great background the look on the seal is great.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - Happy New Year to you too! The dark, dramatic sky is great and very different from most of your seal images. The seal's pose and eye contact is nice. The head seems a little softer than your usual posts. I might apply a little more sharpening. Nice low pov as usual.

TFS,
Rachel

[Stuart Philpott]

To have that background and that subject with that facial expression all together,it jumped at me as a thumbnail Andeas the image is fabulous,usual wonderful processing and details. I'm deeply interested in Rachels post, as it feels the sand might start to get or look a bit crunchy,please for give Rachel using PS has me pondering sharpening and it's effects.
Buddy the grass maram?? to the right is really cool it looks like it's being blown all ways,which lends it'self to the brooding sky
Andreas sorry little contact we are all so busy thank you for all the help, Have the most wonderful new year I know now I'll stay with dpp as my Raw ,but ps might be useful too

A stunning start to the year may we get the chance to see many more of your images

take care mate

stu

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Andreas, a very dramatic shat with great mood and content. I like the dark sky, the light coloured seal and the low POV. Well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Andreas this is magic! I would not change a single thing.
I am a little curious about the copyright sign have you done some patching/cloning there?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks folks ...much appreciate your comments.
Rachel - for me the sharpening is enough , but will take another look tonight .
Stuart - you are right about the sand in combo with the fine fur of the pup, the sand does get quickly a crunchy appearance . Nothing wrong with DPP ,but too limited for me to finalize the image . Right now i do leave DPP aside and use mostly Capture One , but will for sure not forget DPP.Capture One offers me the ability to stay longer in the raw stage, i do have less work on the pixels in the final image.

Jon - thanks , well the copyright sign , no patching/ cloning in that area . Just a blend mode in the Text layer .

Thanks again to all of you , Cheers Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

These shots are just getting better & better Andreas. Awesome light and love the colour palette and POV. I might shave some off the LHS to take the subject off the central POV. Keep the grasses creeping in on the RHS, adds context.

BTW in answer to you email, it was some software that I was sent on a Beta testing programme, can't rememberer the name, but very complex Andreas.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Steve your feedback is always appreciated .
Your suggestion is for sure an option , have not thought about it.
Ok ....then it is nothing for me , if it is as complex as you say . Over the years i have tried all the " Major " raw engines , but used only ACR at first , then switched to Canon with no good results ( DPP 3 ) . Then i used C1 on/off . Finally i think DPP 4 works great , but has its limitations . Nowadays C1 is covering these limitations .....for the moment i am using it more or less exclusive , but try the same image with DPP just for comparison fun .

Cheers Andreas , BTW hope you are making progress with your home.

[Steve Kaluski]

I would look to build on C1 as the results look super, I'm tempted, but don't really want to invest the funds as I doubt they would do a free upgrade from my original version to the latest, to big a jump.

There is light at the end of the tunnel thanks as all flooring is now down, so fingers crossed for the end of the month, but need to shift this monster cold.