A pair of Razorbills

[Ivan Sjogren]

A first shot from a recent trip to the Swedish archipelago with the goal to get some decent shots of auks and seabirds. These birds are so cool to observe close up, they really are the penguins of the north with those tiny wings adapted for a life in the water.
Let me know what you think. The greyish blop between the birds and the other circles in the BG are oof birds. I thought it gave the image some character so I kept it for now.

Canon 5D Mark IV | Canon 500mm f/4.0L IS USM II | ISO 540 | f/7.0 | 1/3200s

[annmpacheco]

Lovely interaction Ivan and a treat to see the yellow inside of their mouths, unfortunately the whites are over exposed and not sure you can recover any detail, but if you can, you have a winner. I would also suggest toning down the brightness on the rock. Very tough to expose in bright light...

[Jake Levin]

I wish I could photograph these birds! Composition, head angle and sharpness all spot on. In Québec the name for these guys in French literally translates to "little penguin". The rock details with the moss/lichen (?) are a nice touch, though I would agree with Ann that you could probably tone them down a bit. I do see detail in the whites but I would play with shadow/highlight and selective colour to try to bring out as much of the fine feather texture as possible, and also try to clone out the specular highlight between the two birds' heads (but sometimes that's easier said than done). Thanks for giving us a look!

[Mike Poole]

Ivan, the shot itself is lovely, 2 nice poses, a good eye level POV, none of the feet are covered which is nice. As Ann points out though, it could do with having the whites lowered, as they just present as too bright. I don't think they are burned, maybe they look OK on your monitor, butI pulled out more detail just by doing a luminosity adjustment on the whites then adding a few points of black in 'selective colour'. Doing it on the RAW would be much better

181882

Mike

[Bill Dix]

Terrific interaction between the birds; love the open beaks. Dark tones seem well exposed, which allows the eyes to show -- very tough with this species. I agree with all the comments above. The repost is a big help.

[Colin Driscoll]

Striking birds and generally well shot, allowing for the previous critiques. The crop is a little uncomfortable for me, maybe a bit more space on the right to take them off center?

[annmpacheco]

Ivan, the shot itself is lovely, 2 nice poses, a good eye level POV, none of the feet are covered which is nice. As Ann points out though, it could do with having the whites lowered, as they just present as too bright. I don't think they are burned, maybe they look OK on your monitor, butI pulled out more detail just by doing a luminosity adjustment on the whites then adding a few points of black in 'selective colour'. Doing it on the RAW would be much better

181882

Mike
Nice work Mike, certainly an improvement! I love their interaction.

[John Mack]

Overall a very nice image of this two razorbills. The poses on both birds are right on. Nice blue water background as well. Agree with the others on the detail.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, Mike's repost has addressed the brightness issue quite well. Perfect face-to-face poses, and the BG blues are quite appealing. Personally I would remove the oof white circles, but everything else checks my boxes!

[Arthur Morris]

Good on the improved WHITEs. I'd lose the circles in a heartbeat ...

with love, artie

[Ivan Sjogren]

Thank you very much for the repost Mike and thnk you everyone else for your suggestions. I agree that the whites were hot in the original post but I was able to bring quite alot of detail when I went back to the RAW.