1st winter ring-billed gull head shot

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

40D. 400 f5.6L at f/7.1. iso 400. 1/800s.

All C&C welcome.

[Mital Patel]

you're always rocking bro. loved the contrast level and the bg is so creamy to give superb feel to the image.

[Randy Stout]

Kaustubh:

Very nice head angle of this handsome fellow.
Interesting graduated background. Nice smooth transition.

On my work monitor, which tends to overexpose just a bit, the whites on the shoulder look a bit warm. Perhaps a bit of blend work there. Will check again at home on the better monitor.

Nice comp for a portrait.

cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Everything works here Kaus. Pose, exposure, sharpness, and just love the two tone BG. You have nailed this one. Fine image.

[Doug Brown]

Super image Kaustubh!

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto Stuart. I little higher or a little lower would likely have improved it. Love the soft colors and tones.

[Alan Lillich]

KD - I love it when the color in dark-eyed birds starts to show. Did you try lightening the eye to show the color more? The times I've tried that it seems to bring out steel-eye.

Artie - I'm curious about your comment. I can see moving the BG boundary would be nice. But moving up or down would also mean loosing the nice straight-on portrait. Always tradeoffs, ... I'm thinking lower camera would be better than higher, to empower instead of diminish the bird. ?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Alan, no, I haven't done anything to the eye.

I was lying flat shooting ducks and this one landed close by....really close. I shot from this low angle as I wanted to get the two-color BG rather than plain blue. He/She quickly moved further away. I made multiple images with different BGs but none from this close range.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Spectacular portrait, Kaustubh.
Lovely bg, sharpness and exposure. Thanks for sharing your awesome work.

[Dan Busby]

Beautiful shot Kaustubh - brings a good perspective to this otherwise common feathered friend. Very interesting and beautiful BG. That delicate pink of the bill is outstanding. This really shows what that lens is capable of!

[Sid Garige]

Awesome portrait KD. You made it interesing with two tone background.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent portrait, and beautiful pale colours.


Did you try lightening the eye to show the color more? The times I've tried that it seems to bring out steel-eye.


Alan, when lightening eyes you should only do so selectively on the iris and leave the pupil intact. If you are also touching the pupil this is likely why you are getting "steel-eye".

[Arthur Morris]

Artie - I'm curious about your comment. I can see moving the BG boundary would be nice. But moving up or down would also mean loosing the nice straight-on portrait. Always tradeoffs, ... I'm thinking lower camera would be better than higher, to empower instead of diminish the bird. ?

If KD got an inch or two lower, the bird's head would have been set against gold with the gold/blue line at about the neck. If he had gotten an inch higher, the head would have been set against all blue with a gold BKGR. Both would likely have been an improvement and neither would have affected the apparent perspective much. I think :) Actually, I am pretty sure of it.

[Aidan Briggs]

I've always loved your Ring-billed Gull images KD!! Great BG, soft light, and perfect HA. Well done!

[Hendri Venter]

I agree with all the positive comments above but for me the multi coloured BG makes this a very special image.

[RAM MALLYA]

Lovely closeup and details here Kaustubh . And perfect exposure and focus on the bird considering the light BG .