Otter

[William Dickson]

Canon R6
f/4 400mm DO Mk2 at 800mm
f/8
1/500
ISO 4000

This is another frame from my time with an Otter on the shore of a sea loch, Isle of Mull, earlier this year. He/she had just finished eating a flounder and was 'washing up'. I was on the shore, quite close, I wanted to get lower but decided against it. Too much of a risk, with the Otter seeing me, then running off. HH. ACR and PS.

Will

[Jonathan Ashton]

Interesting shot Will, I like it. The first thing that struck me however was that various parts look smooth - very smooth I am referring to sea weed and fur (though I do appreciate the fur is wet) .... have you applied NR .. perhaps a little too much????

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, great to see an Otter, how lucky were you and such a close encounter too!

My first comment is as per Jon's too much NR, but then looking at the face, SS and using the 2x, is it a fraction soft???? How much of a crop is this Will?

Now saying the above, trying to strip out some of the sharpening, dropping the exposure in places and the fur being wet, if you have time I would create a virtual copy and start afresh reducing NR & sharpening. In addition, using the new Lens Blur tool it really helps the 'fuzzy' part of the image you RHC.

Will I'm just 80/20 because I really like it and the framing, but I feel the PP is masking what you have within the capture. If you want to discuss you know where I am Will.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Will,

Great pose from this Otter and I love the way he is 'perched' on the rock - or maybe a log - above the water. Well composed with some good space on the RHS.

Not easy to make a subject stand out when captured in such a busy environment, although must say the vegetation/sea weed makes this image very interesting. I do understand what you were trying to achieve with the NR and I think it works to some extent albeit it's a bit 'patchy' when it comes to the BG.

If you have the time, I would be interested to see an RP where you apply those suggestions from Steve. Have not used the Lens Blur tool yet but I am told it works very well.

Overall a lovely image with great appeal, thank you so much for sharing!

Kind regards,

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that, much appreciated.

I enhanced the image in ACR at 15%. This is about 70% of the original. I did find getting the sharpening on the fur a little difficult, with some of it being dry and mostly wet. I'll have another go at the processing, taking in your comments. At the time of capture ISO 4000 was probably the highest I've been , and your right, getting the balance between NR and sharpness is critical.

Will

[Dave Goldberg]

Hi Will,

It's a great shot in difficult terrain. I like the way he stands out even though his coloration is about the same as the background. The scene itself seems a bit intense to look at. I think there might be a bit too much sharpening around the face, and the local contrast (LC) is fairly aggressive and makes everything in the scene pop out and distracts from the subject. The upper right hand background seems a bit nervous with some halos and artifacts.

Perhaps if you backed off on the sharpening, and then the LC (I think that's clarity in LR/PS?). If it were me, I would then mask around the otter and slightly back off a bit further with LC and the also the contrast just a slightly in the surroundings and that could tame the background and draw better attention to the otter.

Cheers,
Dave G.