Atlantic Puffin

[gail bisson]

Taken in Iceland July 2019. Bright cloudy day.
This is probably my best BIF shot of the trip. Problem is I had to clone out an OOF puffin sitting in the BG below and to the right of the puffin ;-( I did get other good shots once he had passed the puffin but this was the best wing position (of course)
Canon 1 DX 600mm v 3 handheld.
You have to handhold for these shots because the wind is so strong on the cliff tops and the ground so full of burrows and holes so you have to sit or kneel or you run the risk of getting blown off or falling off the cliffs. Besides, if you stand with a big tripod, the puffins will not come in and will veer off to sea and circle until you leave or maintain a low profile.
A camo sheet would be deadly here because you would end up parasailing off the cliff edge!
7.1 SS 1/2500 ISO 1250
About 70% FF
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks.
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Simply superb flight shot, with great wing position, nice approach angle, comp, fish, feet, background all good. You could take a light green brush and paint the whitish areas a bit (or a bit more if you did already), but they are not really bothersome. Fine image as posted.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I do not see how you could improve the image... looks spot on. Good work cloning. There are three darker areas of green below and slightly right of the bird, also the lighter circular highlight areas that could be smoothed out with the Paint Brush tool in Photoshop. Set the opacity to 20%, pick up the green of the background and bush over them until they satisfy your eye. I never read of anyone using the Paint Brush but it works wonderful sometimes rather than the clone stamp. I did a edit to show the results. If I shouldn't have edited your image I will remove it. Thank you for sharing, Gail.

P.S. This is one I would print and hang on my wall.

[Joseph Przybyla]

You could take a light green brush and paint the whitish areas a bit (or a bit more if you did already), but they are not really bothersome. Fine image as posted.

Hey Bill... Seems great minds think alike. I was doing the edit as Bill was posting his comment.

[Moe Richard]

Impressive shot. Good job at postprocessing to remove the distraction. Excellent wing position and tiny fish.

[annmpacheco]

Love the fish in the beak all windblown Gail, nice and sharp and dof very good. I like the BG, overall well done.

[John Mack]

Looks great. Love the pose and of course all those eels. Background is very nice as well. The bird is nice and sharp.

[dankearl]

Very nice pose, sharp, well exposed.
I would leave in the highlights in that Joe removed, they sort of curve with the pose
and add to the BG.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

The pose, sharpness, colors and fish are outstanding.

I would tweak the lower bg a bit as suggested.

Glad you survived the experience!

Randy

[Anthony Barsotti]

Great shot Gail, love the pose and the fish are an added bonus. I honestly wouldn’t have known that you cloned that had you not mentioned it, I agree that maybe smoothing it out a bit more with some green might help a bit. Still an awesome capture regardless, thanks for sharing!

[Geoffrey Montagu]

What a remarkable incoming Puffin flight capture, Gail. Wonderful fish filled beak, curled as they are, and clear of the eyes. Love the trailing feet, and I like background.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[gail bisson]

I do not see how you could improve the image... looks spot on. Good work cloning. There are three darker areas of green below and slightly right of the bird, also the lighter circular highlight areas that could be smoothed out with the Paint Brush tool in Photoshop. Set the opacity to 20%, pick up the green of the background and bush over them until they satisfy your eye. I never read of anyone using the Paint Brush but it works wonderful sometimes rather than the clone stamp. I did a edit to show the results. If I shouldn't have edited your image I will remove it. Thank you for sharing, Gail.

P.S. This is one I would print and hang on my wall.
Hi Joe,
I have absolutely no issues with you tinkering with my shot. Always a good learning experience to see other people's ideas!I did use the paint brush on the specular highlight in RUC but left the bottom circles as is. The cloned out OOF distant puffin was just under the chest.
Gail

[David Salem]

I'm on vacation in Canada right now, Niagara Falls, but I had to chime in to let you know how much I love this shot!! Great everything, from the pose to the HA to the BG to the Details to the fish in the beak!! One of your best IF images. Very well done Gail.