Another unapologetic full sun shot taken while in the kayak. There is a backwater on the Somo river created by a creek running in and it’s like a painted turtle paradise. Many of them sun themselves on lily pads, but this one chose an old stump. I had been sitting in the kayak some distance away for the better part of an hour, just taking in the scenery and the stillness and watching the turtles do their turtle stuff. So when I started slowly paddling away, this one wasn’t too upset at my approach and let me get very close for this portrait. Mostly it’s ~plop~ and off they go.
Specific Feedback Requested
I deliberately kept the background bright and darkened the turtle in sort of a reverse vignette. These guys are sun worshippers and I wanted that to come through. Does it work?
Technical Details
Handheld w/CPL to reduce glare on the carapace
Lr for initial raw work to smooth the transitions between light and dark areas. Added some dehaze on the turtle alone by using the masking feature. Topaz Sharpen Motion Blur model did a good job on the reptile, but not the background which still had blobs of noise. So I ran the Too Soft or Out of Focus model which did a better job with the background, but left the turtle less sharp. So I brought both TIFs into Photoshop as layers to blend them together. A bit of a crop for last, but it’s not much.
