Common Seal

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/8
1/1250
ISO 2000

Hi Guys, I have been photographing the seals again in my hometown, makes a refreshing change from the birds...I felt so sorry for this one, as it looks like he has been in a battle with that lower lip in a bad way. I hope he recovers from his nasty injury. The 'perch' is red sandstone. This is nearly full frame, cropped slightly for comp. Processed with PS 2019.

Will

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Will - Always nice to have you posting in Wildlife. If I anthropomorphize I would say he looks a bit sad. I think it's the eyes coupled with that wound. I like the sandstone as a perch, it gives the image a bit more color. I think I would sharpen the face a bit more if it were mine.

TFS,
Rachel

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed Will I like the tones/gentle colours, composition good too. I am guessing you focused on the eye as opposed to nose or halfway between eye and nose (??)

[Gabriela Plesea]

Sweet image Will, love the pose from the seal with one flipper forward, looks as if he is bowing. He is also wounded which adds lots of drama.

Composition is great. Lovely clean BG. Like the smooth "perch" too. Techs look good, I just feel the seal (especially its face) is a bit dull, needs more definition? Maybe try a linear curve in PSCC? Up exposure a bit? You can also increase saturation on reds and apply selectively on the wounds, if you like.

Very well seen and captured Will, glad you did not miss this opportunity and I hope to see more seal images from your hometown, thank you so much for sharing!

Kind regards,

[William Dickson]

Thanks Rachel, Jon and Gabriela for the comments and advice, much appreciated. Hi Jon, the focus point was on the nose.

Will

[Morkel Erasmus]

Good to see you posting here.
Agree with Rachel's comments, he looks forlorn. Perhaps lift overall exposure a wee bit?

[John Mack]

Nice view of this seal. The pose and the rock perch are nice. Great background. He does have a rather sad look to him.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hey Will, great to see you posting here and a cracking image too.

Like the POV, just slightly lower looking up. Agree with Morkel on perhaps a fraction more Exp, sharpening & DoF look bang on for me, you just need to control both the Contrast & Blacks, as I feel they are dominating and masking the capture. Amazing how the seal colourise bends into the rock. Lets see more...

TFS
Steve

BTW, have you seen that Neil has won some BWP awards for his reds?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Will ...hey ho somebody else is posting a Seal !!! Well done
Lovely capture of this harbour seal ...
I do like the simplicity in this frame ....
Steve has the right view of it, in terms of exp and tones . As it is a demo from his side ... i would say he went a tiny bit to far , looks a bit too light for me . If his edit is on a single adjustment layer .... i would drop the opacity to about 75 %

Personally i do love seals .... but prefer the grey seals , a bit more impressive and agile than the smaller harbour seals .

TFS Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

i would say he went a tiny bit to far , looks a bit too light for me

All depends on your monitor, the ambient light and personal prefs Andreas. But remember, I have also resolved the 'blacks' issue so things will look/appear lighter, but better. I know which version I would run if printing or sending it out.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Indeed Steve ... judged on my screen and my prefs . Nothing " wrong " with OP and RP ....

[William Dickson]

Thanks Morkel, John, Steve and Andreas. Thanks for the repost Steve, I see where you are coming from regarding the contrast, as you said it depends on the monitor, it does look a wee bit 'light' on my iMac, which I think does make a difference with regards to the contrasty appearance. I like it though . I never knew about Neil, but I will check it out.

Will

[Steve Kaluski]

Will, am I correct that iMac monitors cannot be calibrated with calibration kit like Spyder or ColorMunki?

thanks
steve

[Mike Poole]

Thats a great spot to shoot from Will - I love the POV on this one. The seal blends in beautifully with the rocks with the fur fitting in well with the weathered patterns.

Lovely details throughout

Mike

[William Dickson]

Thats a great spot to shoot from Will - I love the POV on this one. The seal blends in beautifully with the rocks with the fur fitting in well with the weathered patterns.

Lovely details throughout

Mike

Thanks for that Mike, appreciated.

[William Dickson]

Will, am I correct that iMac monitors cannot be calibrated with calibration kit like Spyder or ColorMunki?

thanks
steve

Hi Steve, I use the Spyder 5 Elite, which works ok with the iMac

Will