Gull-scape

Back to the gulls. This young one was checking out the little freshwater creek. The creek is quite brown from the tannum and is reflecting on his belly. The big blow and tides had brought downstream lots of tiny fish and red worm. A gulls banquet.

In ACR - Exposure - a fraction to the left. Shadows to the right. A touch of clarity and vibrance. In the HSL Panel - Oranges to the left to compensate for the reflection of the tannum.

In PSCS6 - Dfine over whole image. A little dodging. Almost full frame. Cropped to level horizon. Smart sharpened for posting.

I hope I have embedded the colour settings OK?

Canon 5D2
canon 70-200mm @ 200mm
f13 @ 1/2000 sec
ISO 1000
Hand held

C&C Always welcomed and appreciated!

Oh wow Glennie!! You got a great BIF here, that f13 really worked out for you and I guess he was flying right at your head with 200mm! Love everything, the HA is great, the entire bird is sharp and then the just OOF background with the waves, sky and clouds, just beautiful!!!

Glennie, a slight CW rotation for me (I am pretty sure this is personal coz I use a ruler on my screen to see if it's horizontal), it's just the second surfline below the horizon is a bit strong to make the picture looks like it needs a slight rotation. Other than that, take my money. This is a very nice gull-scape.

BG is the perfect environment for this bird Glennie and I like the little turn of head with spot on sharpness beak tip to tail tip. Seagulls are a common bird but I think they make a great substitute for the white ibis etc. that our more tropically situated photog friends get to shoot.Out of curiosity, did you boost the saturation of the beak?----I usually do that on birds like this (and the eyes too) as it can add a nice little pop of colour.<script type="text/javascript" src="safari-extension://com.ebay.safari.myebaymanager-QYHMMGCMJR/4dc7e2e0/background/helpers/prefilterHelper.js"></script>

Wonderful!! Great whites excellent pose and lovely BG! Excellent to keep focus on him as he flies toward you! Is he carrying something or does he just have big feet?

It's easy to level horizons in LR/ACR by turning on the crop overlay after you choose the crop tool. The "O" key toggles thru several overlays. Rotate the crop by placing the cursor just outside a corner. Or in PS turn on the rulers (Ctrl/Cmd + R) and put the cursor in the top or side ruler to drag a guideline into the image. Get rid of it by using the Move tool to drag it back into the ruler or off the canvas, or use the View Menu > Clear Guides.

Adhika - I can see what you mean about that second wave line. It does look a little crooked. Thank you!

Bob - Thank you. I did "burn" his bill and actually lightened his eye ( Ligthened the iris and burnt the pupil). I did think it was a bit of overkill considering his eyes are so small in frame!

Diane - Thank you! He has big feet. I have some shots with really strange looking feet. They sort of squish them up...I suppose it's all to do with the aerodynamics. I use the crop tool in ACR to do most of my leveling and find the grid most helpful. In PS, I also use the crop tool, but drag the top border down to the horizon. I'll give the more sophisticated way a whirl.

Glennie you've done really well here, beautifully executed. The just oof BG is killer for me mate, love the way the bird sits against the receeding cloud


Stu