Laughing Gull

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV -1 ISO 160 AWB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Isaac Grant]

Really nice close up of this handsome bird. Colors are great and details. I love the striations on the beak. These simple portraits could be a bit boring sometimes I find but when they have such great details then that more than makes up for the lack of action. Only problem I see is that the whites of the mid chest look too hot to me. While they are not blown out there is less details visible there than on either side of the whiter area. I would lower the highlights there and then run the NIK detail extractor to try and eke out as much out of that area as possible so it could match the same excellent fine feather details of the rest of the image. I typically use it at 25% opacity in situations like this but would try up to 50% to see how it helps.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Really nice close up of this handsome bird. Colors are great and details. I love the striations on the beak. These simple portraits could be a bit boring sometimes I find but when they have such great details then that more than makes up for the lack of action. Only problem I see is that the whites of the mid chest look too hot to me. While they are not blown out there is less details visible there than on either side of the whiter area. I would lower the highlights there and then run the NIK detail extractor to try and eke out as much out of that area as possible so it could match the same excellent fine feather details of the rest of the image. I typically use it at 25% opacity in situations like this but would try up to 50% to see how it helps.

Isaac, thank you for viewing and commenting. I'll look at the area of the chest that you mention. Although I have all of the Nik software on my computer I rarely use it. I find most things I can do in Lightroom (probably 95%, only using Photoshop for cloning and patching). Thank you for the suggestion, I appreciated your interest and caring to respond.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the eye clarity, sharpness and composition. Very well done Joe!