Whale watching today.

[FrankMi]

Peter, You have certainly found a way to outdo the magnificent images posted above! Thank you so much for sharing.

[Ken Curtis]

Add my kudos to your images, Peter. You did a wonderful job of isolating the whale and not including too much water.

[AB26]

Interesting question. I have spent a lot of time trying to work out the best settings for whale shots. When they breach the risk is huge blow out because the whale and sea is likely to be dark but the water/splash can be intense white and very reflective.. So its all a balancing act.

But actually White Balance is the easiest AWB covers it all

And the rest of my settings are:

Shutter priority at least 1250 but better 1650
ISO 400 (You don't notice any noise with all the splash and a small touch of noise reduction fixes without noticeable loss of detail)
Exposure compensation - 3 thirds of a stop on a bright or high light cloud day but 2 thirds of a stop on duller days.
In really bright conditions this give an aperture of around 10 up to 13 depending on focal length.

Thanks for sharing. The reason I asked is: the EXIF indicates White Balance was Manual. You really did a great job here.