Ring-billed Gull

[Wayne Wood]

While out at one of our local ponds things were really slow when a gentleman and his young son showed up with a loaf of bread, kind of saved the day. So as they fed the gulls I clicked away this is one of the images I was pretty happy with. My techs could be a bit better (lower ISO). Canon 20D w/ 200F/2.8L, F/8.0 @ 1/6400 sec, ISO 400, +2/3 ev comp, manual exposure 90% full frame.


http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/9103/mg802901bd5.jpg

[Doug Brown]

I like the way the sun is illuminating just the head, and also the dangling feet. Whites are well controlled and there is enough shadow detail in the wings, although I suspect you could bring out a little more shadow detail if you were so inclined. Good job!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well, with that shutter speed at least you ensured to freeze the movement! With your shorter focal length you can afford to photograph with a lager aperture from close range (such as f/2.8 here) without sacrificing too much DOF. I like the blue sky at bottom and URC.

[Stephen Stephen]

Wayne nice position and good head angle on this bird. A touch of fill flash would have given you a bit more detail in the shadowed underwings but still a pleasing image.

[Tony Whitehead]

I like the head position and light on the head, Wayne. Image looks too dark to me with nothing touching the right of the histogram. A little more than +2/3 exp comp if often need for birds against a sky. I have adjusted levels to get a bright white and moved the midpoint to the left to open up the shadowed areas. This introduced some noise so I did a pass with Noise NInja. I could see a significant green cast under the wings (?shot over grass) so neutralised the midtones with curves. Not sure what you think

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent repost by Tony; thank you sir and for your membership support as well. The orginal post is way too dark. Go back with some bread on a cloudy day with flash and the results will be much more pleasing. (I am not a fan of the dark shadows even when the EXP is correct.) <smile>

[Wayne Wood]

Thanks a lot everyone for your kind feedback and most especially Tony for taking the time to edit my image and explain what he had done much appreciated