Although your light is less than ideal, the beauty of the scenery is great. Great use of rule of thirds to place the subject and kudos in isolating him from clouds and rocks. You pressed the shutter at the right time, one fraction of a second and the wave would have been on him :)
I love this environmental portrait. Your exposure is good as is your composition. Diagonals are a strong compostional elements so that the seal's pose adds some power to the image. I would suggest toning down the rocks in the FG with PS. Maybe a little highlights and shadows. Overall, good work.
I agree with both Fabs and Joel here. I would like to suggest two things you could do the tame the contrast.
1) A reverse s-curve, and
2) Selection of the highlights using the channels palette, copy the selection to a layer (CTRL-J), change the blending mode to Multiply and then adjust opacity down to taste for the FG rocks. I masked everything out except for the FG rocks on this blending layer.
The composition on this is very strong. I love the seal in the lower right leading you out to a grand vista.
I agree with previous posts on lighting etc...
Simon,
Lovely composition. That is what I believe a landscape image should be. A foreground that adds interest and perspective, a middle ground and a lovely background. Lot of layers in the image. The f10 aperture helps in imparting sufficient depth of field. The pose of the seal is nice.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Ah, a lovely rule of thirds seal-scape. Robert's repost handles the harsh light superbly. Thank you Mr. Amoruso!
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