One of my favorite turtle photos, but until recently it couldn’t be salvaged due to very high noise because of the low light conditions and that I was in the kayak. But these days it’s much easier to deal with and so here it is in all that red shell glory. It’s a regular old Painted turtle, but oh, that reflection knocked me out when I saw it so that’s why I had to try. I think its feet are on part of a log that is submerged and in front of the lily pads. I have photos of turtles with missing toes or whole feet, but I’m pretty sure this one had both intact.
On1 No Noise and then into Lr for the basics of massaging the tonalities and bringing up some texture. Ps to remove a distraction or two. Back to Lr for a crop and a little masking to reduce the shine on the scales a bit.
You’ve hit all the right notes with this one Kristen. A perfect reflection of a great subject with a non distracting background. And a nice clean and sharp image with no visible noise. Whatever noise was present in the original image was sure taken care of with your denoise technique. Very well done.
Hi Kris! I love this photo! The painted turtle is nice and sharp and the colors are excellent. The near perfect reflection forming an O shape, and the imperious attitude of the turtle (at least that’s my interpretation) is excellent. There are some small spots across the scene in line with the reflected head that draw my eye. Minor but I’d suggest cloning them out.
What a very unique photograph. The reflection is quite nice and being symmetrical really drew me in to look at the photograph in detail. Look’s sharp and processed correctly. Congratulations!
He might be a “regular old Painted turtle” to you, but to me, he’s quite a treat. This is such a gorgeous capture Kris. I love the sleepy look of his eye and the completely laid-back attitude.
Thanks @Ted_Forman , @Steve_Kennedy , @Mark_Seaver@stephen_rauch & @Glenys_Passier for the enthusiasm and taking the time to comment. Turtles do seem to give off emotional vibes for a creature with basically no facial muscles. Painted turtles are very common here, like your Carpet Pythons, Glenys, but can be exotic to folks from other places. I guess we just get used to our backyard species.
Perfection. The reflection creates another unified being. Beautiful colours. The background doesn’t distract except for the leaf on bottom right. Can this be cloned out?
Thanks @madd_laura - glad you liked it. Not sure about the leaf removal - the one in the extreme edge? I don’t find it takes away from our star, but we all have our reactions.
Kris: Got a serious -meter spike from this one! Striking colors and an inspired comp. Like @Steve_Kennedy I’m seeing those dust/flare spots in the FG water and I would definitely make them go away and then print this large. Another one meriting that cup of hot chocolate mixed with admiration. Many kudos! >=))>
-meter spike from this one! Striking colors and an inspired comp. Like