Juvenile Black Headed Gull.

Overcast day with diffused light and calm conditions.

1/320 . F8. ISO 2500.

Canon 5D Mk4. Canon 100-400 Mk2. Canon 1.4x mk2 TC. ACR and PS6

Ohhh how i wish for a head turn , what a fabulous image David, love the colors, stillness, reflection. The beak color and rusty feathers are a welcome contrast and the subtle foot in the water. I am on my notebook computer and cant tell if there are details on the head? Also, the serene mirror B shows about 6-7 dust spots; time for a sensor cleaning!

Very nice glassy reflection of this Black-headed Gull. However there are many things that could be improved with this image. As Ann mentioned the head is facing away from us and that leaves the viewer wanting more. The bird looks soft and like much too much NR was applied. I would back off the NR and try and see if you can get more details out of the bird. Perhaps try a 25/25 recipe of Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast on the bird and see if that helps. The top of the head is over exposed. The whites of the bird are very gray and the whole picture has a blue cast to it. I would go back to the RAW and try and correct the color problems before exporting to PS. You want to make sure you import a file with proper exposure, nice clean whites and true colors. Processing low light photos is very hard. Let me know if you need some specific pointers.

I think this is a beauty, David. I love the serene feel to it. Yes, a tiny head turn wouldn't hurt, and perhaps a touch of Detail Extractor (oh yes, and those dust spots). On my screen the whites are nice and crisp, neither blue nor overexposed, or at least not by more than a point or two. (Top of head is in the neighborhood of 242,241,246 -- just the slightest adjustment would pull in into line. (I usually try to keep whites in the mid- 230s when I convert from RAW, but once sharpened and converted they can easily stray into the low 240 range which I personally don't find objectionable.)

Sweet situation with this first winter gull. Try drawing a line with the Ruler Tool from the bill tip to the reflected bill tip and then going Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary to see if it needs a bit of CW rotation ... Then follow most of Isaac's advice -- the WHITEs look OK to me as presented.

with love, artie

Sweet situation with this first winter gull. Try drawing a line with the Ruler Tool from the bill tip to the reflected bill tip and then going Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary to see if it needs a bit of CW rotation ... Then follow most of Isaac's advice -- the WHITEs look OK to me as presented.

The poor head angle has left the head looking dead and dark ...

with love, artie