Kittiwakes

[gail bisson]

1DX
F 600mm and 1.4X
ISO 800
F 7.1@1/1600
Taken on Sledge Island, Nome, Alaska last June
PP: 80% FF, Increased exposure by .45, levels, DE at 3%,USM at 30% to JPEG.
I did very minor (1) noise reduction to the rock wall as I did not want to lose detail. Does it look OK to your eye?
The birds were in a recess of the rock wall so it was quite dark where they sat on the nest. I could brighten the image even more but that would not be true to the scene. But perhaps I should still brighten or increase the exposure even more?
The feathers on the kittiwakes head are very smooth in real life- very hard to get more detail.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[douglas hayes]

Gail-good capture and details for shade shot. A couple of edits i would try-boosting contrast and saturation in the rock wall BG, and cropping so the birds are a tad more off center. I hope to visit NS sometime and then on to Iceland if that is easily traveled??

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks good to me Gail my only suggestion is that the birds are rather central, maybe move them slightly to the right? The background looks sharp enough and the detail is there in the plumage. I see you use USM and clearly it serves you well, just maybe you could consider Smart Sharpen or the Perold method (you can download from the Wildlife forum, I use Perold for all my web sized images. I edited the Action to produce various sized images for landscape and portrait, the beauty of the action is that it tends to sharpen the subject and very little else and you can also use the brush to completely unsharpen (eg background) where required, you can even vary the opacity of the sharpening layer - perhaps worth a try?

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

The image is certainly bright enough for my taste. I would also consider small crop from right to decenter the bird, using the greater negative space on the left to balance the greater mass of the right bird.

For personal taste, I would leave the saturation of the rock as is, for fear that it will compete more with the birds if the background is too prominent.

Randy

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the overlapping bills, exposure, setting and intimate feel. The rock looks fine to me and I agree with Randy's crop suggestion. Very well done Gail.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

I find this image exceptionally beautiful (although if you asked, I wouldn't be able to clearly explain why).
Something about the grass (nest?), this couple and the beautiful rock face. I so wish this was mine.
The eyes/heads pull my attention and for my taste, they need to be centered. As such, the comp works perfectly for me, as is.

[Raymond Lee]

I find the center composition fine here! The brightness is also good to me even though it's a bit dark, but there's something about the rock as the BG make it seems okay.

[christopher galeski]

Beautiful image,love the BG rock,nice were in love pose.

[David Salem]

I like the overlapping poses and the angle on both the birds looks great. The detail looks good on the backs and it looks exposed well so that tells me that the feathers on the head must be very smooth and featureless. The solid wall of rock BG looks cool also. Well done Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Good pose of both bird and nice rocky background, Gail.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The comp looks fine to me too with the face-to-face poses. As for your questions about the rock and overall exposure I think they are both fine as is. An overall great job.

[Rob Melone]

Love-ly composition and capture!

[Shawn Zierman]

Very sweet image. I like how closely the birds are together, with good head and body angles and eye contact. The designs on the rock are really cool! Strong triangular composition, would not change a thing.

[Marina Scarr]

This is really a top notch image, Gail! Love the pair and how they are facing one another and both looking your way. You've done a good job making the environmental elements work well.