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Rainy Gull Portrait
I haven't been around for a short while due to a trip to Scotland.
Among other things, I did a workshop with (captive) birds of prey (not sure if people want to see these here?…)
That workshop (rainy day) together with the rest of the trip (many more mostly rainy days) really showed me one thing - having clouds overhead instead of a clear blue sky can indeed be beneficial to photography.
Dean, who did the workshop, actually told me he was happy the weather turned out to be what sun-hungry folks would describe as less than ideal.
Of course, some of the nice people here like Diane already told me about the benefits of clouds, but seeing it in action is just so much more valuable.
One of the photos I took was of a curious common gull in front of our lodge, where we remained inside all day because it was the worst weather of our stay.
It was quite nice of her to sit relatively still, stoically enduring the constant rain. That enabled me to use a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/640s, which in turn kept the ISO down to a well manageable 400 despite the conditions.
She was quite close, so 241mm was sufficient, using the wide-open aperture of 5.0 (ISO!).
One-shot autofocus nailed the eye quite well, I think.
Camera as usual the 7D Mark II, with the EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
In Lightroom, playing with the sliders, I saw the chance to really make the bird stand out from the (already very dark) background by pulling back on the shadows and blacks. The lights and whites raised just a little, as were the sharpening sliders. A little cropping to get even closer and adding a bit of clarity and brightness to the eye were the final touches.
Okay, afterwards I played around with nature's remains, aka removing (still in Lightroom!) a few bits of bird poo from the perch (it seems to be used quite often).
It is only a gull, some might say, but I personally quite like these birds and am happy how this portrait turned out.
Thoughts and criticism are welcomed, of course.
Thank you for having a look, kind regards,
Robert
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A nice opportunity to make the best of a rainy day. I find gulls to be great subjects for portraits. The light angle has given some very nice detail on the side of the face.
Did you take the opportunity to zoom in farther and get just a head and shoulders shot? The DOF is limited with a large subject this close, and having most of the body and tail OOF isn't a strong feature of the image. I would consider a crop to just below the two white feathers on the back -- sorry, I don't know bird anatomy. (Flowers confuse me, too...)
While it can often be a good feature to minimize BG detail to make a subject stand out, the blacks here are very solid and heavy. It can be a delicate balance, and a matter of preference, but my taste would be to not have them so uniformly dark. I pulled the image into PS and converted it to my working space -- absolutely necessary so I can see the correct histogram. The blacks are pushed well against the left wall.
It would pay to revisit the adjustments on a virtual copy and see what you think. Watch the histogram -- it's a better indication than a monitor.
Captive birds are also a favorite of mine -- any subject is appropriate here. (Well, within the bounds of taste...)
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Robert, gulls are beautiful birds. If you look at my last few posts you will see I like them too. They're good practice and fairly easy to find...if you live near the beach.
I like what you are trying to achieve here. I am fiddling with something similar that I probably will never finish. I like the over shoulder glance that shows off his beautiful face detail. I may be tempted to lighten his eye just a tiny bit more. Perhaps adding more canvas on the LHS would give him more space to look into. IMO, I would like to see a little more light on his left leg. The shadowing has made it look a bit skinny.
Would love to see your captive raptors!
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Hi Diane, Hi Glennie,
thank you for your kind comments. 
I agree that it is a delicate balance to pretty much blacken out a large part of the image, and I rarely use that technique. In this case I like it, however, as I feel it adds to the portrait style of the photo.
Regarding the eye, I actually added quite a lot of light to that already. There was little to begin with as it was a very low overcast with heavy rain (poor gull!). With the correction brush, I am pretty much all the way to the right with the necessary sliders - including noise reduction. I can understand the temptation to add even more light, but am kinda at the limit here already.
I have tried to add a bit more light to the left leg, well both legs actually since it appeared a bit strange when I only added light to one of them. Not sure if the effect is really working as intended though - it may be this particular kind of gull, but their legs are indeed very skinny!
A good example is this photo, also of a common gull - it appears a miracle these tiny sticks can carry that body. 
Here's the "lightened feet" version of the original portrait.
Thank you once again for your comments, kind regards,
Robert
P.S.: I'll see that I get a few of these raptors posted soon.
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The lightened version is better, to my taste. I'd probably go even further, but that's definitely maker's choice.
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BPN Member
I like what Glennie wrote about gulls and captive raptors. Some of the most beautiful avian photographs I've seen are of gulls. Hmm. That sounds dangerously like, "Some of my best friends . . . " Anyway. About captive birds. For me, almost any subject is fair game. I do, however, appreciate being told about a bird's being captive, feeder lures, recorded calls, etc. For me they can be effective tools.
To this bird. I like Diane's call of a close up portrait. The excellence of this photograph, it seems to me, lies in the area around the head. That is one very fine beak. And that red around the eye is quite wonderful. Cropping in for a portrait would take an exercise photograph much further up the scale. IMHO. As for the background, when I saw the image at first, I thought you had used flash. The contrast gets to the point of harshness I think. But I congratulate you quite heartily for staying active in bad weather and working your craft on this willing creature.
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I think this is very nice! It minimizes the distracting areas and keeps attention on the very nice details in the head. I'd suggest just a little more canvas on the left to give a little more room for it to look into.
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Originally Posted by
Diane Miller
I think this is very nice! It minimizes the distracting areas and keeps attention on the very nice details in the head. I'd suggest just a little more canvas on the left to give a little more room for it to look into.
Thank you, Diane, glad you like it.
I understand the idea to give more room to the left, I have a few issues with that myself though. Without changing the 3:2 format (which I usually try to avoid), I would either end up with more black space on top of the gull, or cut into the area with the round white feather tips at the lower right. Both of which I find not very desirable.
Also, my wife likes this crop quite a lot, can't anger her. 
Still, I am glad I could find another nice version of this photo with the suggestions here, I'll actually keep both!
Kind regards,
Robert
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A wife is always right! I know that from being one....
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Robert, I like the tighter crop very much. It shows off that lovely eye and bill detail.
You should always listen to your wife. Happy wife, happy life!
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Originally Posted by
Glennie Passier
Robert, I like the tighter crop very much. It shows off that lovely eye and bill detail.
You should always listen to your wife. Happy wife, happy life!
Thank you Glennie, glad you like it.
And indeed, listening to my wife usually is the best way to go!
Kind regards,
Robert
