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Thread: Sea Otter Eating

  1. #1
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    Default Sea Otter Eating

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    Moss Landing, California, is an excellent place for photographing sea otters. This fellow was just a few yards from the road. I spent about 20 minutes photographing him (her?), as he repeatedly dived and came up with more food. Then it started to rain.

    Bill

    Canon 7D
    Canon 500mm f/4 + 1.4x TC
    1/500 f/8 ISO 400
    Heavily cropped. About 1/8 of the original frame is shown.

  2. #2
    Ken Watkins
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    Bill,

    I fear that the crop is too large and you have lost a lot of IQ, I have no idea what is in the rest of the frame, but I would try a smaller crop, or it may just be in need of a little more sharpening.

    In fact I have just tried a couple of small rounds of smart sharpen and it seems to have done the trick, what do you think?

    I would love to see one of these beauties

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  4. #3
    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    These guys are fun to watch and if you can get them when they have wrapped themselves up in kelp and fallen asleep you might stand a better chance of getting closer and if they wake then you should get the shots you want, but feeding is always a good image to go for. Great to see them using their 'belly stone' too, in cracking the crab shells.

    I would have increased your ISO and gone to f/5.6 to get more SS which is really what you needed. Obviously a tripod might not have been so easy to use, so go for a bean bag to support your kit. Acts as a good and flexible platform and can easily be moved at a moment notice. Keep low and don't break the horizon. If you can get more like this without having to crop hugely and keep your SS high you will be onto a winner.

    Personally with a huge crop and the techs I very much doubt any additional sharpening will help, but good practice. How far are you from Monterey, now that is a good spot

    Good luck.

    TFS
    Steve
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    I agree that some image quality has been lost in the crop. Cropping more loosely leaves a lot of very boring material in the frame, so the question is whether the quality is acceptable. Smart sharpen seems to have improved it a bit. I've tried a different approach - pushing over the 'clarity' slider in Lightroom. As far as support, I was using a tripod - Gitzo 5541 with RRS bullhead BH55. I could not have gone closer without wading in water where it's both illegal and dangerous to be. On the other hand, I could have used a 2x TC. One of the things that makes this spot attractive to otters is that there are some culverts through which a fairly strong tidal stream flows under the road. This current also attracts egrets, who stand on the culvert exit and spear fish as they are swept through. Moss Landing is roughly 20 miles from Monterey and 20 miles from where I live in La Selva Beach.

    Bill

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    I liked what Ken has done with this image , very nice
    TFS

  7. #6
    Ken Watkins
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    Bill,

    Thanks for the further information, and the repost.

    I think the main problem regarding looking at the result here is the relatively low file size amd the subsequent loss in IQ, OK it may never be pin sharp but I am sure it looks better uncompressed.

    I stll like the subject and hope that you will be able to get better and closer sightings in the future..

    Good Luck

    Ken

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