Creativity: Backlit gull in flight

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/11127553-lg.jpg

First winter ring billed gull.

40D. 400f5.6L at f/6.3. iso 400. 1/2000s. A little curves/contrast adjustment but not much. Followed the gull and clicked when it gave me this banking pose. Luckily got him perfectly in front of the dark band.

All C&C welcome.

[Stu Bowie]

Kaustubh, the rim light against the dark BG looks good, and even better that you captured a full banking angle. I can see this as a vertical too.

[Randy Stout]

Kaustubh:

Nicely captured/timed. The transillumination of feathers by backlight is nice, esp. the tail.
I am with Stuart here, a vertical might work very well.

Cheers

Randy

[Joe Senzatimore]

Beautiful rim light. I think this is just crying out to be a vertical!!!

[Grace Scalzo]

I think that Joe is on to a great idea. The gull has a beautiful shape and I too think a vertical would enhance that.

Love the light!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Although a vertical would work well too I really like it as is comp-wise. I love how the gull is centered perfectly on the BG dark band, with equal parts of wings extending beyond into their next respective sky and water bands. The bottom wing has a bright (blown) patch of lighting that I would tone down to match the rest.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx everyone. I agree that vertical will also work well. But I dont like to do huge crops on 40D files. For panos, I dont care how much I crop from top and above. But horizontal-cropped-to-vertical, means throwing away more than 50% of the pixels. at best.

Daniel, thx for pointing out that blown patch.

[subhrashis]

LOVE it as presented, you have got a great image here!
I love the detail visible in the backlit feathers. the dark bg complements that.

Another thought, you could try darkening the midtones (i mean lowering the midtone input value in levels) to make the rimlight dramatic and prominent. That would lose the shadow details (and hence id implications), and only highlight the form of the gull. Do you think this image could work?

[Arthur Morris]

Count me with Dan. But I think that it is much stronger as a HORZ. To work as a VERT it would need a stronger banking pose. I do love the backlight.

[Bill Dix]

Wonderful use of backlighting. It doesn't often work as well as this; but catching him in full banking turn against the dark band makes this a winner. I like the composition as posted.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent Kaustubh, like the subtle detail in the wings.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Another thought, you could try darkening the midtones (i mean lowering the midtone input value in levels) to make the rimlight dramatic and prominent. That would lose the shadow details (and hence id implications), and only highlight the form of the gull. Do you think this image could work?

I think you mean darkening the shadows, not midtones. That might make it dramatic but will look unnatural IMO. In processing, I try not to deviate too much from reality. personal preference.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the back light, pose and setting and might be tempted to make the bird a full silhouette.

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent pose and backlight here KD , liked this very much as posted
TFS

[Chris van Rooyen]

Rim lighting is really spectacular. You did well to get the posture perfectly right!.