I took this in the Galapagos from a zodiac boat after the sun had already set leaving the sky a blaze of color. Does the water look Ok?
Nikon D3s
1/500 sec at f6.3
iSO 3200 HH
70-200mm
Understand your concerns about the water, its colour does look a bit flat (ish) and the foam is not really white as i would expect. So, again I took the liberty of playing around with someones elses image (mainly to satisfy myself) and came up with this, hope you don't mind... Does the water now look closer to what you saw ? I think lifting the water colour balances the image against the bright sky a lot better also.
What I did was to create a selective colour layer with no masking and selecting Cyan, I backed out the cyan by 19 points and the black all the way to lighten the foam and lift the water colour. I also considerd lifting the shadows on the rock but realised that it took the eye away from the seal (not what you want I guess) so promptly removed that change.
Understand your concerns about the water, its colour does look a bit flat (ish) and the foam is not really white as i would expect. So, again I took the liberty of playing around with someones elses image (mainly to satisfy myself) and came up with this, hope you don't mind... Does the water now look closer to what you saw ? I think lifting the water colour balances the image against the bright sky a lot better also.
What I did was to create a selective colour layer with no masking and selecting Cyan, I backed out the cyan by 19 points and the black all the way to lighten the foam and lift the water colour. I also considerd lifting the shadows on the rock but realised that it took the eye away from the seal (not what you want I guess) so promptly removed that change.
Great image, Bob, very well done! Those colors in the sky are awesome and the seal is just in the right spot looking the right way. Didn't mind the water as it was, but Dons work looks good too. I would run a little NR on the sky and remove the dust spot just above the steep part of the hill on the right.
Hi Bob, a wonderful capture for sure. I like what Don did to the water and agree with Morkel on a little more sharpening on the specified areas. Nice capture!