Portraits for Stu Bowie's Feb theme

[Jean Louis Rousselle]

Good morning,

Took this image on Tuesday past. The Ring-billed Gull is pretty common.
The image was taken on Stuart Beach in Fl. I feel that the Gull's winter plumage adds interesting contrasting details in the head.
After having submitted an image last week and receiving some positive and instructional feedback including links to good reference materials.
I now wanted to attempt to produce an image with correct HA and direction of sun.
The image was made using a 1D MKlV, 400L F5.6 lens, no flash, ISO 400 1/600 sec F10
I have newer more capable gear, however, I appreciate the compactness of the old 400L F5.6 and find it provides acceptable results in good light.
Image processed in LR and cropped at approx 1.2 ratio.
I look forward to receiving feedback and suggestions on any improvements that you feel maybe required.

Thank you,

[Arthur Morris]

Love those gulls. This is a fine image of a winter adult RBGU. It is a bit too tight in the frame for me and I think that pulling the curve up just a bit would not hurt this one at all. With love, artie

[John Mack]

This is a bird you can gauantee to shot any day of the week in my local. Very nice. Agree that it is too tight all around. Details look very nice and the light is pretty sweet.

[Isaac Grant]

Details look pretty good here. Head angle as well. Image would benefit from lifting the exposure a bit. Once you have the bird selected I would do the following in photoshop. Go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > SELECtIVE COLOR and then in the drop down menu choose the white channel. Then I would lower the black slider (move it to the left) until you have nice white whites. As is they are a bit too gray.

[Dorian Anderson]

Lovely detail! I might bump up the yellows a bit to make the eye and beak pop a bit more.

[Jean Louis Rousselle]

Good morning,

Wow! Thank you all for the feedback and great suggestions for tweaking / improving this image.

Be assured that your input and the time you take to provide it is greatly appreciated.

I will attempt to put these suggestions to use in this image and future ones.

My wife and I currently have visitors for a few weeks. As pleasant as this is, it will put a damper on my photography and posting on BPN

A bientot :S3:

[Daniel Cadieux]

I can't wait for these guys to return in 4-5 weeks in their fresh breeding plumage, always a highlight for me. Sharp, and well exposed. I agree a bit tight in the frame. I love the small specks of sand on the bill, but for sure I would remove the larger reddish spot directly above the nostril.