Pair of Gannet Parents/Chicks

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 5d Mark II
EF 400mm f/5.6L USM
ISO 100
1/000sec
f/5.6
Gitzo tripod

Taken at Bird Rock, Cape St Mary's, Newfoundland, Canada a month ago. Lighting was really challenging, sun was high and yet behind the rock. Should have bumped my ISO up considerably, I know now. I cropped this picture to make it more interesting, took about 1/4 off from right. Need to probably clone out the tail in right lower corner.
What about a way in CS4 to make the chicks stand out more? They are so well camouflaged and blend in a bit too perfectly. Any suggestions and critiques would be greatly appreciated.
Hoping to keep and make use of this, I like the painterly still life feel of it.

[Joel Eade]

Melissa,

I like this image, I think you may be able (if image quality doesn't suffer too much) to crop it in such a way as to use the two birds on the left by themselves. You would have to clone out the tail of the chick on the right The whites look good to me and I like the fact that the chicks are so well camoflaged....I actually didn't see them for a few seconds!

Joel

[Lance Peters]

Hi Melissa - Chicks are well camouflaged - HA'S are not good with 3 of the four looking away - Think the HAP might have something to say about this one. Nature photography is a lot like Portrait photography - the eyes are the window to the soul! Eye contact gives the viewer a connection to the image.
Love Ganett's but they are challenging in anything but soft light - got to hold those whites. Composition can be difficult as there are usually so many birds densely packed into a given area and isolating your subject can be a challenge.
The crop idea from Joel could work with some addition of canvas on the Left hand side.

Looking forward to seeing more :)