Critique Norfolk seals - Mum defending pup (new born)

[Gav.]

Hi, looking for help on this one, does this work as an image or is there too much going on? Should it be cropped etc..?

The seal warden at the beach advised this pup was a hour old

I used snapseed app on my tablet to sharpen but doesn't seem to work very well

Any feed back welcome

Thanks

Gav

 

[Phil-D]

There's definitely a photo there telling the story Gav.

My first thought, shutter speed looks too slow for the charging mother and gulls, making it look blurry/soft.

I always think it's a must to post exif as well as focal length, when asking for crit, it's hard to give advice without.

A quick edit, cropped, cloned and a little sharpening would, for me, give a half decent record shot of events

 

[Gav.]

Thanks Phil, sorry for lack of info..

Canon 90D
Sigma 150-600mm C
Av 1/250 f9.0 iso400 157mm RAW

It was imported via canon connect to the tablet, would doing this affect quality as the camera does the jpeg conversion?

I will try and get my PC running again and import the RAW into Affinity and following your edit and repost

Thanks for the help

 

[sphexx]

There's definitely a photo there telling the story Gav.

My first thought, shutter speed looks too slow for the charging mother and gulls, making it look blurry/soft.

I always think it's a must to post exif as well as focal length, when asking for crit, it's hard to give advice without.

A quick edit, cropped, cloned and a little sharpening would, for me, give a half decent record shot of events

View attachment 338878

I wonder whether leaving out the other gull near the pup doesn’t leave out part of the story?

 

[Gav.]

I wonder whether leaving out the other gull near the pup doesn’t leave out part of the story?

Hi sphexx, thanks for the feedback, I think you could be right as that one circled back around after being moved on

Thank you both for taking the time to help

 

[sphexx]

Hi sphexx, thanks for the feedback, I think you could be right as that one circled back around after being moved on

Thank you both for taking the time to help

It’s nearly always the way that the defender has to move too far (or gets carried away) to drive off the attacker/rival leaving the prey/food I defended. Happens even with blackbirds squabbling over breadcrumbs in my garden .

 

[Gav.]

I'm sure they were only trying to clean up and feed on the afterbirth, but they were pecking at the pups face very close to the eyes at one point and pulling its tail and flippers.

Anyway .. I'll try harder next time and I'll get another edit done

 

[sphexx]

I'm sure they were only trying to clean up and feed on the afterbirth, but they were pecking at the pups face very close to the eyes at one point and pulling its tail and flippers.

Anyway .. I'll try harder next time and I'll get another edit done

You have a kinder view of gulls than I .

 

[Gav.]

Or I'm just being too polite

 

[Gav.]

How does this look? Used Affinity rather than my tablet and app

 

[Phil-D]

Thanks Phil, sorry for lack of info..

Canon 90D
Sigma 150-600mm C
Av 1/250 f9.0 iso400 157mm RAW

It was imported via canon connect to the tablet, would doing this affect quality as the camera does the jpeg conversion?

I will try and get my PC running again and import the RAW into Affinity and following your edit and repost

Thanks for the help

Gav, 1/250th would be too slow for me, should be ok re FL handheld but unless gulls are stood still, there's always the chance of motion blur. I very rarely shot below 1/800th and usually faster if conditions allow.

Shooting wide open at f6.3 would have given you a ss of 1/500th at ISO 400, doubling ISO to 800 would have given you a ss of 1/1000th with a lot bigger percentage of sharp images.

I wonder whether leaving out the other gull near the pup doesn’t leave out part of the story?

Hiya Richard, yes, I would probably agree with that, I even nearly put in the post, other crops avaliable and mine was only a suggestion

 

[Gav.]

Thanks Phil, really appreciate your time and info, I will make note and try harder

 

[sphexx]

Gav, 1/250th would be too slow for me, should be ok re FL handheld but unless gulls are stood still, there's always the chance of motion blur. I very rarely shot below 1/800th and usually faster if conditions allow.

Shooting wide open at f6.3 would have given you a ss of 1/500th at ISO 400, doubling ISO to 800 would have given you a ss of 1/1000th with a lot bigger percentage of sharp images.



Hiya Richard, yes, I would probably agree with that, I even nearly put in the post, other crops avaliable and mine was only a suggestion

Don’t you think that provided mother & pup are sharp then blurred gulls would add a sense of drama, provided they were recognisably gulls of course?

I think the problem for me with these is that (and maybe it’s my ipad/eyesight/forum software/etc) the pup isn’t clearly enough defined, given that one’s eye is drawn to the main action.

 

[Gav.]

I felt the pup is a little left out, the pup was still 'wet' and it had sand stuck to its light coat and blends well with the beach, do you think tweaking the levels etc on the pup alone help?

Sorry if I've miss understood

Gav

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Maybe a little more light on the image ( Curves)

Les

 

[Gav.]

Thanks Les

 

[Gav.]

Done a quick edit on the pup, wanted to try and bring a bit of the natural lightness of the fur back

I'll move on to something else now

Thanks for all the help

Gav

 

[Phil-D]

I'll move on to something else now

To finish this thread off Gav, I'll just reply to you and Richard

I will make note and try harder

What I will say to this is, just go out, practise and have fun. Trying harder can be frustrating, trust me I've been there and probably most bird/wildlife photographers will have been at some time as well

Don’t you think that provided mother & pup are sharp then blurred gulls would add a sense of drama, provided they were recognisably gulls of course?

I think the problem for me with these is that (and maybe it’s my ipad/eyesight/forum software/etc) the pup isn’t clearly enough defined, given that one’s eye is drawn to the main action.

Motion blur in birds, wings, ect is very subjective and down to personal taste, that's not saying it doesn't always work.

For me, I would prefer to see a hovering Kestrel pin sharp showing good feather detail right across the wings. An arty shot of say a hovering Atric tern can stand a little motion blur as long as the head/eyes and bill are sharp,

One thing I wouldn't do is offer it as advice, I think this is where the frustration could come in to play when shots aren't pin sharp. Keep the ss up, get sharper images you're happy with, then play around with arty, slower shutter speeds if and when appropriate......but obviously that's just in my opinion

 

[Gav.]

To finish this thread off Gav, I'll just reply to you and Richard


What I will say to this is, just go out, practise and have fun. Trying harder can be frustrating, trust me I've been there and probably most bird/wildlife photographers will have been at some time as well

Thanks Phil