Baby Seal crit please

Was really lucky to see this baby Seal this morning, we had only just arrived when he? popped up in the harbour and hauled himself onto the jetty, not more than 5 metres away, I've given it a very slight crop

D3S
400MM F/2.8 + 1.7TC II
1/1000th
ISO 1400
F/6.3
+0.7 EC




C&C welcome

Thanks

Andy

Nice sharp image where it matters Andy

The bg is somewhat problematic and you've 'short sided yourself' with the light and it's thrown the near part of the pups face into shadow.

There would be no excuse for this if it was shot at Donna

But with words like harbour and jetty it obviously wasn't - so perhaps you couldn't have worked your way around the pup to get a better light on it.

Comp looks okay

Those soulful eyes come out very well, but you do have severe lighting problems here, as Andy has already stated. Unfortunately, in the situation you describe you have to take what you can get. I think, however, that you can improve things a little at the processing stage using the shadows/highlights command. If you lighten the shadows by about 25% and darken the highlights by about 50% you will find a noticeable improvement.

David

For me it's the FG & BG Andy. The former covering the whiskers and creeping towards the face while the latter uninspiring,

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but a larger aperture may have helped to blur the kelp, thus softening the effect, and I find cropping just below the dark grey band lessens the impact of the dull sky and focuses the seal more. The contrast of the seal itself doesn't bother me though.

Regards,

Des

Thanks for helpful advice guys

David you shadows/highlights adjustment works nicely

Des, i think your right about the DOF, i had been worried that shooting wide open (F/4.8) would be too narrow. Something to remember for the future