This was the first photo on day 4 of the Oregon Coast trip with @John_Williams. Of course it was another heavy fog day. I was setting up my camera and tripod to get a landscape shot of the trees reflecting in the placid river with a really nice reflection. As I got the camera mounted I noticed some movement in the heavy fog on the far shore. I took a quick shot to see if I could determine what it was. I looked in the LCD screen and saw the otter. I quickly changed lenses to us my 150-600 to get a better view. Unfortunately, just as I got the camera remounted, the otter, along with 3 others, took off and we never saw them again.
Specific Feedback Requested
All feedback welcome
Technical Details
D850, 70-200 at 200, 1/40 sec, f6.3, ISO 400
This image is a significant crop of the original, then upsized in LightRoom.
I really like the setting and the subject too.
If you like you may slightly increase the contrast in Otter alone or may be the rock too.
It needs some rotation.
I looked at the image and, at first, I thought it’s an unedited RAW file, only to find out later from your description, it was a foggy day.
I think it is very challenging to get a properly exposed and a sharp photo in conditions like that - kudos to you for nailing it!
I fiddled with the file in Ps and my findings are:
with a little bit of contrast work, especially in the shadows area, I’ve managed to make it look like an almost no-fog image, with greater but still natural contrast and more saturated colors
contrast work revealed that shadows look slightly tinted with cool-cyan colorcast
I think it could still use some small cropping (mostly on the right, bottom and left side), to have the Otter stand slightly more out
Nevertheless, it’s a great moment and you managed to capture it very neatly!
Thank you @JRajput and @JRajput for your comments! I made a few changes per your suggestions - more contrast, slight colorcast correction and slight cropping from sides and bottom. I appreciate your input!
This was a fun catch with that fish hanging out. I wish you could have caught a second one with the 500mm. I agree with the above comments; the clarity is challenged by the fog and fiddling with the contrast would likely help that.
Thanks @John_Williams! I wish he gave me time to get the bigger lens on too! Especially since this is only about 10% of the original image. It was so foggy I didn’t see the otter - I only saw the fish move and thought it was a bird’s beak until I looked at the image in the LCD screen and enlarged significantly. I was shocked to see it was an otter.
I cleaned up the image a bit more and added it at the top.
Otters are notorious chickens, so congrats on getting this. And with a fish! I think somewhere between the first and second image would be the sweet spot. I’d see if restraining the clarity adjustment to mid-tones or a limited luminosity value would help relieve the overall crunchy look that is not in keeping with the fog. If not clarity, dehaze applied with a mask could also do the trick. Definitely worth playing with because OTTER!
Steve, this sounds like a great wildlife experience. The processing looks to be quite a challenge. While your original post fits your description well, the softness from the fog keeps it from being strongly eye catching (not necessarily bad) and it really shows off the colors in the vegetation and reflections. I like the “peaceable kingdom” feeling of the original with the extra surroundings, but do wish the otter stood out a bit more. I wonder about a crop from the right (maybe to 8.5 x 11) to move the otter off center and some luminosity work to modestly increase the contrast just in the otter and it’s perch. I think the middle version gets the otter about right. The 2nd redo seems overly contrasty, especially in the vegetation.
Here’s a quick edit and crop (3x2 maintained), where I may have overdone the contrast in the otter…
