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Thread: Common Merganser and seal

  1. #1
    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    Default Common Merganser and seal

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    This bold merganser successfully stole the flounder from the seal. He tried unsuccessfully to eat the flounder but it was too big and in the end dropped it back into the sea and the seal got his meal after all!
    This was a difficult image to process because I was underexposed by a full stop ( the sun went behind a cloud just as this happened). The color balance was really tricky to reproduce accurately. It still looks too blue to my eye but I did add a warming filter- perhaps I nee to do more? But the scene was like this because of the sun behind the cloud.
    Look forward to any advice on this one.
    Canon 1 DX 600mm and 1.4 x
    ISO 500 SS 1/2000 f 6.3
    About a 40% crop to 60% FF. Nothing added or cloned.
    Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
    Gail
    Last edited by gail bisson; 04-18-2019 at 05:20 AM.

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    Super action, and super sharp with all three on the same plane. Like the crop too, and the aspect ratio. Agree the scene looks blue, but the colors of the subjects look great, so probably just because of the indirect light.

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Gail:

    I really love these type of interaction shots, and this one makes you want to laugh! You have got to give the merganser kudos for bravery, if not brains!

    Agree about the slight blue on my monitor, but it is really close. I tweaked it just a bit, and it was noticeable, but barely.

    Absolutely the right place at the right time

    Congrats

    Randy
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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    The color balance was really tricky to reproduce accurately. It still looks too blue to my eye but I did add a warming filter-
    Hi Gail, no idea on what you use for a Raw converter, but in LR using the WB picker you are looking to get a 5000 reading in all three channels, once you have this you will then have NO colour casts and your grey midpoint is all set at 50 which is the basis to then Colour manage accordingly by then changing the WB, Saturation, HSL, Colour balance, Selctive colour etc etc etc. If you have ramped the Blue up in the raw convertor via Saturation it needs pegging back, this will help reduce the Blue colour basis you have.

    A great encounter and low POV, just wished you had the whole of the Merganser in shot, the Flounder is sharp but sadly the Merganser isn't.

    Hope the attached helps.

    TFS
    Steve

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    Wonderful moment worth the extra processing. TFS

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    Now this is something you don't see everyday. The interaction is very nice. I guess that merganser must have been pretty hungry.

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    Trying to make lemonade out of a lemon but I had a redo at this. The image is a bit of a dog but I love the action.
    I do not have the entire merganser ( cut off the tail) but tried a crop with a bit more of the mergie. Sharpened head of mergie and changed color balance and cloned dark spot above seal.
    Gail

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    Hello Gail, repost is an improvement but alas no lemonade... Really unique interaction you captured and all of us were pleased to view. Another time, another flounder!

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    Hi Gail. Great to see you back here...hope you had a great holiday after Brisbane. Really cool shot here...right place at the right time! Cheers.

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