Puffin with nesting material

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
F/4 500mm
f/8
1/1000
ISO 640

I spent a long time with these birds and tried to get something different, instead of the classic Puffin pose, or the Puffin with fish in the mouth. I captured lots of images, of these birds, and loved watching their behaviour. Here we have a Puffin collecting grass, which they would take to their nest at the end of a burrow, three feet underground. This is where they will lay a single egg. Captured on the small island of Lunga on the west coast of Scotland.

Thanks for looking.

Will

[annmpacheco]

Hi Will, glad for the greenery BG and nesting material, I also like the HA. Theres a bit of posterization and maybe a bit over sharpened, looking crunchy...

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that Ann. I always seem to get posterisation now, probably happens when I save for jpeg. The original looks ok with no posterisation. The sharpness looks ok here. I had strong light, probably too strong, and didn't need to apply much sharpening, the detail was good on the RAW.

Will

[William Dickson]

I've reduced the contrast here, do you think this looks better?

[Bill Dix]

Great Puffin portrait, Will. Love the grass, and the beautiful BG. OP looks very sharp but not oversharp on my monitor -- maybe on the edge. Repost helps. A great looking frame.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good details, and both the blacks and the whites look great. Nice to see the nesting material being carried in the bill.

[Walker Noe]

I love the behavior captured here, as well as the BG. I think the blacks could use a bump darker, and I agree that the OP may be oversharpened. Repost is better. Nice image!

[Isaac Grant]

This is really nice William. Love the vegetation in the mouth and the beautiful details. Killer background. I much prefer the original shot here. The repost looks washed out and like it has a film over it to me. If people are not viewing these images on a high quality monitor then I am not sure they are truly able to give an accurate critique on all aspects of the shot.

[John Whaley]

I really like this one Will. Beautiful colors and background with that amazing bright clear eye. Perfect timing with the nesting material. High IQ and detail.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, I like the face you have vegetation in the beak, it adds to the scene, but agree the image does appear over sharp. The face is very subtle and that's speaking from shooting yesterday with these guys and there is a tendency to make it look almost 'wiry' in it's appearance which it's not. However, yes the light could be a factor in this, as we were shooing in over cast conditions providing very flat light and so the tonal contrast was more 'even' and easier to handle.

One thing Will, is this a crop (if so by how much) or FF?

The original looks ok with no posterisation. The sharpness looks ok here. I had strong light, probably too strong, and didn't need to apply much sharpening, the detail was good on the RAW.

Will, if you have a minute give me a call, be good just to walk through your WF especially at the end. If need be I can fire off some screen grabs I did for some other folk here on BPN recently which resolved a few of the main headaches they had, but that would be at the weekend when I'm back.

BTW was this on Mull?

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Will you have certainly captured some detail there. I suspect this is pretty much full frame and that is why we are seeing such definition in the plumage. It sounds an odd thing to say - (especially for me who is always mentioning a presence or a lack of plumage detail), but is the detail a little over enhanced? I wonder if the processing is just a little heavy. I think it is a very good image but maybe a tiny bit softer, I also think the light is critical, this may also be why the detail appears to well defined, I know this for sure because I have posted similar images in previous years.
I think the colours and exposure are excellent. The blacks look good and very often the whites do appear to be more grey than white, again this is very much light dependant.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments and advice guys. Not much of a crop here, but I think the light was rather strong, hence the detail on the feathers. Steve, this was on the small island of Lunga, a short boat trip from Mull. I have quite a few Puffin images from this island, and as luck would have it, the only time the sun did shine bright, during my week long trip, was when I was on the island at the Puffin photoshoot. I think some over cast conditions would have been better. Next day, when I was on the WTE trip, it got too cloudy. One extreme to the other .

Thanks again.

Will

[gail bisson]

Late to the party but wanted to say i love this image.
The 2 toned BG is lovely and I love the grasses in the mouth.
Gail