Dolphin

Image Critiques Wildlife Critiques
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Dolphin
Dolphin1600Ă—2000 1.2 MB

Image Description

Hats off to wildlife photographers. I mostly capture stationary landscapes, and when wildflowers move in the wind my closeups are done with a pair of strobes.

Dolphins, it turns out, poke their head through the surface momentarily, and by the time the body breaches, the snout is already back under. All this takes place very rapidly. And predicting where they will breach and in what orientation is impossible. In this case I was at the starboard bow rail of the 3rd deck of a slowly moving tour boat in Bay of Islands, NZ, struggling to catch any shot of any part of a dolphin at the surface. My Sony a7Riv, it turned out, did not have enough buffer, even in compressed RAW, to shoot as many frames as my inexperienced skill level needed without bogging down. I exposed roughly 170 frames to get this one keeper, while I was refining my technique on the fly. Thus a lot of luck was involved. (So I’ve told my wife I need an a7Rv…)

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.

  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.

  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.

  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

What pleases me the most is that thanks to my CPL the submerged snout is clearly captured. the detail revealed on the animal’s dorsal skin surprised me. And I like the tiny droplets of water likely blown into the air by the dolphin’s breath.

Does anyone have a problem with the highlights on the dolphin’s right side (looker’s left), on the torso and the tailfin? I did tone these down a little. Sunling is from looker’s left, moderately low angle (9:30 a.m., autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere).

Technical Details

Sony a7Riv in continuous high speed electronic shutter, AF-C with small spot tracking, ISO 800, 1/640". Tamron 28-200 f2.8-5.6 @ 154mm, f/8. K&F Concept magnetic CPL. Processed in LrC + very mild NR and sharpening in Topaz.

1 Like
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This is a wonderful photo …the snout, the eye and the blowhole with droplets tell a great story which is elevated by the details on the dorsal skin. I think you processed the bright spots well so no problems there for me.

Something you might consider technique-wise is to be ready with a higher shutter speed and push the ISO up…its a trade-off wildlife photographers usually make when motion is expected or happening.

What a fun story too!

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Well, this one would be a feather in your (or anyone’s) cap, even if it had taken 1700 frames to get it. (And there is good reason the high burst rate bodies with space age AF are so popular.)

I love the snout – kudos for using the polarizer! The water is as gorgeous as the dolphin.

It would be worth seeing if the highlight on the tailfin might be brought down more, but that’s a very small point for a fantastic image!

1 Like
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Thank you, much appreciated. I need is another trip to NZ and the faster camera!!

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An interesting frame, very nicely captured!
I like the diagonal placement of Dolphin, it can make a nice cover !
Many times it is just the one frame that matters and one out of 170 frames is not a bad ratio. :star_struck:

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Thanks.

The diagonal direction is as captured. To balance the composition and to bring the viewer’s eyes first to the dolphin’s face and head, I did a few simple things. The exact position of the crop was adjusted to place the dolphin in alignment with a corner to corner diagonal of this 5x4 format, lower left to upper right, with the head nearest the viewer and sort of in a rule of thirds. Mild vignetting was added.

Mainly I was lucky to get this frame just as the nose went under yet while the blowhole and body were above the surface