I don't like this shot. I entered it anyway because I had nothing else and I didn't want to let my DPL team down.
The 80-400VR is not my preferred lens to shoot alligators with, but I couldn't get any closer without getting in the water with them (and that wasn't going to happen). There were a lot of alligators here, some milling about and some mating. The harsh overhead sun was really fouling things up and this was the best shot that I took that fit the challenge.
Post processing:
Opened in Nikon Capture NX
Adjusted exposure comp. down a tad
Used Color Control Points on the gators to brighten them up a little.
Saved to Jpeg
Opened the Jpeg in Photoshop CS2
Levels
Hue adjustment Master
Color Balance to reduce blue cast
Hue adjustment to tone down the yellow
History brush to return yellow to gators to keep them brownish.
Lasso'ed gators and bumped the reds and yellows up a bit.
Cloned out a tiny, distracting leaf.
Played with Channel Mixer to further adjust colors.
- - - Do you see a trend here? I didn't like the colors at all. Cropped a little
Highlight tool to reduce some reflecting glare on the water.
Unsharp
Lasso'ed closest gator and applied a lot of unsharp with a radius of .9% twice to improve the appearance of focus. (I had focused on the other alligator since he was my primary subject.)
Resized and saved for DPC.
These steps are mostly in order and I think that I remembered all of my PP steps.
I've had a busy week and I didn't have much time to put towards this challenge. I'll be happy if this scores around 5.8 but I wouldn't bet on it.
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A little more contrast between the water and the critters and this would really be a fantastic keeper. Still, it must have been fun getting it - with a long lens, I hope.
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