I shot this gull in the middle of a luminous fog at a Lake Superior harbor last March. Just a herring gull, but the light was diffuse and sweet, and I really enjoy the way the underwing feathers look like taffeta.
My thing is this. I worked in shadows/highlights and did the usual sharpening and color adjustments. Is there anything you can think of to make this a better image in pp? I'd thought about using more levels/curves to add 'pop,' but I kind of like the flat, luminous look.
Thoughts?
Canon D-Rebel XT, Canon 100-400 at 200mm, iso400, 1/500 at f8, al servo, crop from horizontal
You did not include the exp comp but seems like it was taken a little under exposed It is difficult to lighten afterwards With that type light you might need to over exposed at least one stop and usually more I like the pose and bird position !!!!
Al, you are right. No EC because I wasn't prepared for the darn bird to land. Just sloppy operator error. It was underexposed about a full stop, and I ran a light noise reduction on the underwing portions.
Steve, I like the composition and posture of the bird and the rock is just the right amount in the frame. I would make a selection of the bird and do a curves adjustment on it along with a levels adjustment to brighten it up.
I my repost below, I did a very rough selection with no feathering, etc. so it looks, well bad but I did it to demonstrate my suggestion on the curves and levels. My corrections are subtle but you can take them as far as you like.
Last edited by Robert Amoruso; 01-06-2008 at 12:10 PM.