Ring billed gull

[Matthew Schmalz]

I was within 30' of this gull; 7D II with 300 f2.8 and 1.4 teleconverter. 1250th second shutter, ISO 200, F8. Cropped and basic adjustment with DPP4. Interested in feedback and comments you all may want to share. Thanks

[Juan Tolentino]

Beautiful bird Matthew, love the colors and the nice background. Looks like the sun's angle wasn't ideal, crop is a little tight, the image looks soft on my monitor and may need another round of sharpening. It will also help to apply a little noise reduction to the background (Odd considering you used ISO 200).

Thanks you for sharing.

JT

[Isaac Grant]

I like the pose very much. Composition works but is a bit tight. Agree with Juan that you have too much noise and that the bird is too soft. It looks like the face just is not sharp. If your original raw is not tack sharp then you can't use the shot. Not sure if that is the case here or if you just cropped too much. Also I think the colors are too saturated. Be careful to not over saturate as that introduces more noise.

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Matthew: Love the pose on this gull. I am not seeing that you have acquired critical focus on the bird's eye which is the most important part of your subject to have in focus. The bill looks pretty sharp so it could be that the movement caused a tiny issue. I note your ISo was 250 on a 7D2. I would make a suggestion that you really don't need to ever shoot with a lower ISo than 400 with the 7D2 and this will give you more ability for higher speeds.