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Thread: "Just a Gull"

  1. #1
    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Default "Just a Gull"

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    I've heard people say that -- I've probably said it a few times myself -- but gulls can be lovely creatures and often cooperative subjects. This Great Black-backed Gull posed nicely at Barnegat last week. Slight crop.

    D50, Sigma 150-600C @ 300mm, ISO 320, 1/2500s @ f/8 manual.

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    Agree with you Bill, no "just" needed. Love the details, colors, eye and perch. Could go a little brighter on my monitor. TFS

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    I find it very hard to get a solid gull image. This one is almost there. Nice perch, nice light and pretty good details. However you have some serious processing issues that you need to address. The easy one is that the whole image is dark and the whites of the bird are grayed out. Always a fine line with raising exposure, toning highlights and keeping nice white whites. Decreasing the blacks in the whites helps even out some grayed out whites. You have some work to do with the edges of the rocks and the cloning you did. There are many areas where you can see a rough selection (under the bird on the left), where you can see light areas from whatever was there prior to the work you did (right of the birds beak and near the curve of the rock on right edge). The area under the birds tail does not look natural. Not knowing exactly what was there or what was done it is hard to give some pointers for cleaning that up. Anyway, worth a revisit for sure.

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    I like it. The gull stands out nicely against the dark blue water. The pose and composition work for me as well. I had a blast photographing the herring gulls there.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Yes, ditto Issac: very contrasty with some greyed out WHITEs. And yes, I love photographing gulls.

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  6. #6
    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    all covered above

    D50? this file must be very old :)
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    I agree with everything metioned by Isaac. Otherwise a very fine frame! I love the rock and the blue water in the BG. Great pose and details!

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Thank you all for your comments. I can see that I did a somewhat hasty job of selecting the seaweed-covered edge of the rock, so when I lifted the shadows of the rock slightly, I left some small light spots that Isaac was quick to catch. I think I've fixed most of them here. I had done nothing to the area under the bird's tail, so whatever you are seeing must result from the way the water is swirling. I've slightly brightened the whole image and slightly reduced the contrast, and also slightly reduced the blacks in the white head and breast areas. All to the better, I hope.

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi View Post
    all covered above

    D50? this file must be very old :)
    Yes, Arash. The D50 is the precursor to my old D70. Or maybe I should have said D500.

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