At the beach

[Bill Randall]

Ok, Ok so I did try birds once. I guess they are gulls? My focus was not just the birds but the overall affect of early morning at the beach.

[Julie Kenward]

You've got some pretty harsh side lighting there, Bill. I do like the image from a compositional standpoint - the way the image rises on the sides and "points" down in the middle is very nice. I also like the dark rocks in the FG - they act as a nice anchor for the frame. Unfortunately, almost all of the birds are extremely overexposed to the point where you've lost a lot of data and detail. Next time, try exposing so even the brightest areas are within the histogram (no "blinkies") and then raise the darker areas up in pp. I am pretty sure fill flash would have been a big help here, too - but you don't give any camera stats so I don't know that for sure. (Always leave us camera exif data and any pp changes you made while editing the image when you are posting in the critique forums!)

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bill - Julie nailed the critique - dont know there is much you could do here - If you had exposed for those whites the darks are going to be pretty dark - you can raise them in PP but will introduce noise.
Try and get the sun at your back - do need to keep those whites in check.

Lets not mention Head Angles - shall we ;)