floreana sea lions, galapagos islands

Wilson,

 

Was the halo effect natural? Sweet shot ...

Thank you for your comment, Amelia. I'm afraid the halo effect is artificial. I used my expansive knowledge of photoshop to burn it in. Please note the aggressive nature of the beasts in this shot as opposed to the docile, loving behavior depicted in my other photo. There are many sides to these magnificent creatures. WB

I actually like the halo effect, I think it adds to the picture, I really do! ...hmm can't figure out whether they hating or lobing.. GOOD CAPTURE

Thanks very much for the kind words, Alon.

Island of Floreana, Galapagos.

Wilson, I like the halo effect - burning in frame edges is a very useful technique, and many images are well served by a very obvious halo such the one you've used here, whereas others do better to have a more subtle effect that serves not as an aesthetic aspect on its own, but to highlight the main subject. I think your photo is the latter - do you burn using the burn tool on you image, or do you use adjustment layers?

 

you may want to consider layers if you're not doing it already - I just learned it recently and it's made a great difference. Hold Apple - Shift - N to make a new layer (dunno the windows way) and set the mode to "soft light" and check the "fill image with 50% grey" box. Then, with the new layer selected, use the pen/paintbrush tool set to between 15 and 25 opacity - black to dodge, white to burn, all done on the adjustment later only. When satisfied, merge the layers. I at least get a much cleaner and more natural look that way (though I still use the d/b tool on the image layer here and again.)

 

I like the shapes in the image as well, there's a definite motion to it very appropriate to the subject.

Thanks, Eamonn. I only know a couple of tricks on photoshop elements and that's about it. I don't know how to do the layers thing but I'm definitely going to attempt it. Appreciate the advice ... that's what makes this a wonderful website. Regards/WB

+ + +