Gannet portrait - with nesting material

[Gerald Kelberg]

A portrait of an Irish Gannet, from the Great Saltee Island off the south-east corner of Ireland, near Wexford.

The male Gannets hold the nest site often with brute force and violence and the females seem to choose a mate based on the quality of his nest site. So there is a lot of competition for nests and materials with a lot of informal exchange, i.e. theft, going on all the time. This character was busy stealing material from an empty nest when I caught him in the act!

Canon EOS 1D Mk IV, Ef 200-400 with extender engaged at 560mm, Gitzo tripod
1/1000 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800
Converted with DPP and finished with PS5 - levels, curves, luminosity mask, Dfine for NR on background.

Comments and suggestions always appreciated.

Gerald

[Jonathan Ashton]

Beautiful! The colours are very accurate, just for interest sake you may wish to try a couple of strokes with the sponge tool to the yellows - you may (or indeed may not ) like the result.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

A very beautiful portrait Gerald. Like the nice even light and the details you've captured. The pose along with the nesting material is great. The comp is just right for my taste too. Nothing not to like here.

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous detail in a wonderful face!

[Richard Flack]

Beautiful portrait Gerald, great detail and cool foliage!

[arash_hazeghi]

nice soft light and I like the nesting material too. TFS

[gail bisson]

Lovely diffuse light and great feather details.
I like the comp but could also see this as a vertical with more on the bottom.
The DOF is excellent and the foliage adds a great pop of color.
Jonathan- what do you mean when you say "try a couple of strokes with the sponge tool to the yellows"?
Gail

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gerald, I like the overall composition and the nesting material is a cool touch. Although away at present, so I could be wrong, I might be tempted just to bring a bit more tonal depth back into the bill for a hint more clarity/definition. Might help on the separation too. Nice one.

Not sure how you create you Lumo masks, but don't forget, you can add adjustments via Curves, Levels etc to it and also by changing the Blending modes too.

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely portrait, Gerald. The nesting material add so much. Beautiful colors and light, thank you for sharing.

[dankearl]

Nice soft light and excellent comp, wouldn't change a thing....

[Mike Poole]

fantastic detail and a classic gannet pose - full marks from me

[Gerald Kelberg]

Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback - one of my favourites from the trip!

Regards, Gerald

[Satish Ranadive]

Gorgeous portrait.

Regards,
Satish.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific portrait with wonderful colors and pose.

[Marina Scarr]

This is one heck of an image. Your bird looks dreamy and the added nesting material is a huge plus.