Herring Gull - Breeding Adult

Captured this gull image at Barnegat Light jetty, NJ in April of 2014, late afternoon. C&C welcome.

D3S, Nikon 500mm f/4G + 1.4 TC, 1/800s, f7.1, ISO 800, Gitzo, Wimberley Gimbal head.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

Classic gull-on-water image. I like the wind pushing the feathers up at the back of the head. You know my love of low angles, but here I like the higher angle causing the view of the foot in the water as well as the nice ripples in front of the breast.

Ditto Danny boy. It is not easy to get the eyes sharp on the bobbing gulls.

with love, artie

ps: was it you, Geoff, who taught me to feather to .7 pixels?

Hi Jeff, I like the bit of feet through the water and the windswept head feathers. also, that bow wake is nice along with the few water drops. Nice exposure on the whites.

I like the angle that you have used to capture the bird with a nice head turn. Whites handled well and good sharpness throughout.

I like the wind swept feathers and you have nice depth of field here. I do think the head is turned a little too much towards us. The major problem with this image is that it is very dark and the colors are thin. The whites are very gray and also have a blue cast to them. I am surprised that no one mentioned any of that. Here is a quick redo with a few global adjustments that bring it to somewhere close to what a white and gray bird should look like. I did not bother with making sure all of the whites and highlights are perfect, like on the top of the head. Much better to do that on the TIFF. Herring Gulls are immaculate and clean white birds with gray wings. It is vitally important that when processing photos that we keep that in mind. You will need to go back to the TIFF and work on those whites from the beginning to get them looking perfect.

Like the gull on the water. The fluffed up feathers are nice. Looks good to me.

Thanks everyone.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu