Puffin in a rainbow of colours

[Mike Poole]

One from this year mini trip to Skomer Island. The light went dull for a short while (well it is Great Britain!) and this fine fellow gave me a look back pose against the distant cliffs with all their different layered colours

Canon 1dx
500mm f4is
ISO 1600
1/1000th f7.1

Mike

[Alex Becker]

Really nice look back pose and a great BG as well. Great look at the eye as well. I might be tempted to brighten the grey part of the face just a tad as it looks a little dark to me. TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Mike, lovely look back pose, and the soft light has brought out the finer plumage detail nicely. The colours look spot on too. Overall sharp, and I wonder if brightening the eye a touch would improve it.

I thought my BG's in the Pilanesberg National Park were good, but there is plenty to be chaffed about this one.

[Glenn Pure]

Hard for me to imagine how this could be any better, Mike. And a stunning subject to lift this shot even higher. Everything to like here: the bird, the pose, the background, great IQ and excellent handling of colours and tones. Nicely framed as well. Superb.

[Arthur Morris]

One from this year mini trip to Skomer Island. The light went dull for a short while (well it is Great Britain!) and this fine fellow gave me a look back pose against the distant cliffs with all their different layered colours

Mike

Hey Mike,

You did a good job of having the head square to the back of the camera and a good job of exposing for the WHITE breast but you left the middle tones way too dark. See the next pane for my curves work. In addition to that I cropped a bit from below; I think that the resulting image design is a bit more elegant. Image quality is excellent.

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

Here is the Curves adjustment. I placed the two dots upper right to pin the curve for the WHITEs. Then I pulled the curve up and pulled it up a bit more to lighten the tones on face.

with love, artie

[Mike Poole]

Really nice look back pose and a great BG as well. Great look at the eye as well. I might be tempted to brighten the grey part of the face just a tad as it looks a little dark to me. TFS

Hi Mike, lovely look back pose, and the soft light has brought out the finer plumage detail nicely. The colours look spot on too. Overall sharp, and I wonder if brightening the eye a touch would improve it.

I thought my BG's in the Pilanesberg National Park were good, but there is plenty to be chaffed about this one.

Thanks gents, I did have similar thoughts myself but opted for the darker version for some reason - looks like I was wrong! Artie RP is similar to my other version and does look nicer - thanks for the heads up

Mike

[Mike Poole]

Here is the Curves adjustment. I placed the two dots upper right to pin the curve for the WHITEs. Then I pulled the curve up and pulled it up a bit more to lighten the tones on face.

with love, artie

Thanks a lot for that Artie - its not how I normally use the curves dialogue, so thats something for me to look at on this rainy Manchester afternoon!

As I mentioned above, I did 2 versions, and ended up opting for my post here, when my other version was closer to yours, Good to see both mods and members on here continuing to give honest crit - it really helps push us all on

Mike

[Bill Dix]

Sweet. Great look-back pose with nice parallel head and bill; terrific rainbow BG. I know the Puffins' faces are grey rather than white, but Artie's repost does make the image look better to my eye.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic image, with the repost taking it up to its' potential. I love that BG you got!

[Isaac Grant]

Really nice portrait against a killer background. I prefer Artie's repost as it really brings up the dark tones nicely. Great image quality as well.

[William Dickson]

Well done Mike. Fab pose and colours throughout the image. Super detail.

Will

[Mike Hitchen]

Wonderfully sharp, Mike and the background colours are not only beautifully soft but the stripes almost complement the pattern on the bird.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Mike lovely shot .
Great IQ and a very nice overall color palette , tones look good too .
I am ok with the darker appearance if light was fading , using the curve adjustment is a matter of taste .

If you using the curve ,a more elegant way is doing it through a luminosity mask .....you will have better tonal transitions and you keep the nice contrast .If using the plane curve things could go flat .

Cheers and TFS Andreas