This is an Otter from the Isle of Mull, taken last year. It's a shame he's sitting just below the foreground but nothing I could do about that. With these guys you have to anticipate where they will come ashore then sit still - trying to re position would have scared the otter off resulting in the loss of his fish (which I think is a three bearded rockling).
As presented I feel the framing needed to come down so you had a tad more below rather than above. Personally I'm not so keen on the OOF FG with a sharp focus of vegetation at the end of the RHS, I find it jars a bit, something that could be addressed within PP if required. Good low POV and being at eye level work. I quite like the position in frame, being side on and looking right. I agree with Jon that the clarity looks a bit off and almost bordering on being a bit too sharp, providing a spiky look & feel to the wet fur. I think, by reducing the Contrast, Shadows & Blacks will help, it just has a 'pushed' feel, so even dropping the sharpening will have a difference. No idea on the 70D and it's capacity for higher ISO, but having some more SS would have helped, the new 100-400 is far better than it's predecessor and I've still not had a chance to shoot with mine after three months and being calibrated by Canon, perhaps next month in Canada.
I'm not sure I fully understand the clarity / definition point. I did adjust a bit in PS so perhaps overdid it a tad. I added a bit of sharpening so could scale that back. Good point on the seaweed on the RHS Steve - hadn't considered that.
I've attached a 100% crop of the otter unedited (just converted from RAW to JPEG in PS).
I agree with Steve's and Jon's comments on the sharpness, sharpening and detail. The original does look a bit soft so thanks for the 100% crop which has helped clarify. You should be able to get a reasonable image from this at least at the smaller size posted on BPN but playing with the sharpening regime both initially and final output sharpening - also maybe reducing the contrast a touch on the animal. As for the rest of the image, I quite like it. I note the comment about the foreground and LHS but for me it does provide framing and think it works. You have a clear shot of the head which is good.
I'm not sure I fully understand the clarity / definition point. I did adjust a bit in PS so perhaps overdid it a tad.
Hi Simon, similar comment that I have exchanged with young Glenn over time and that is, without knowing the full workflow and seeing the Raw, when we all add feedback we are all having to make assumptions on the posting, right or wrong. Also trying to put into sentences rather than the exchange of the 'spoken' word so to speak, you don't have that dialog.
The word 'clarity' like so many descriptive words covers a whole raft of items, but for me you have lost the finer elements and perhaps in processing, by pushing things like Blacks, Shadows, Contrast, Clarity etc it can make a image more contrasty/pop, but then you loose the midtones, and midtone is where all your detail is. I don't know if you use LR, ACR C1 or DPP for processing, but all are very powerful tools and so, IMHO the sliders need to be used with a light hand, however the best way to see what each slider does is ramp it up to 100 then pull it back so you see the affect in real time. Often you will need to toggle between sliders, yes if you have a series of images shot at the asme time, lighting etc you may choose to 'Batch process', but often images are processed on an individual basis. Sharpening is in two phases, input & output, output is the one you use for posting, printing etc and is 'perceptual' based on high/low frequency edges and if you over sharpen you will get halos. You haven't got halos, but I do think some of the overall adjustments have culminated in creating this harder, sharp look.
Not great, but backing off on the items I have highlighted, sadly I can't reduce you sharpening input, but this may help in offering a comparison. I also have tried to address the RHC and balanced the top half which was looking a bit light, having a similar/overall exposure may I think help the lower darker portion. Again, to a degree subjective.
I've attached a 100% crop of the otter unedited (just converted from RAW to JPEG in PS)
Hi Simon, great view of this otter, yet another species I need to find time for!
Its rare I'll ever say this, but maybe the shooting position was a little too low on tis occasion, I think just raising the shooting angle a few inches would have given us a bit more of a look at the otter and the unfortunate fish.
Hope to see more of your shots on here - we need more British wildlife!
Simon, a wonderful image ,very inspiring. i've recently being given a site ironically full permissions came through this morning. Just hoping that the recent high river levels haven't moved them from their holt
I really like the way the weed flows and frames the otter's head and catch i have also benefitted from the dialogue here,I prefer Steve's repost with the weed softened on the RHS.
Simon I agree it's great to see another of our natives,the mustelidea are hard to find but incredible subjects,there are many I'd love to get to grips with here.
Dinner Time
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Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski
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