Laughing Gull

[Phil Ertel]

This is another image that I captured on 28-Jun-08 during my visit to the Charleston SC area. Definitely not an exotic species but I like the bird’s attitude. During a lull in the action this bird landed a little out of good picture range and then proceeded to approach me. Has it got closed it let out a series of calls then commonly turned around and walked away. The full frame did not include the legs; as the bird was too close. So I choose to cut the legs off during capture. I cropped an additional bit of negative space to the left and a little more of the bottom. Does the crop/composition work for you?

Thanks for looking and special thanks for comments and critiques.

Best Regards,

Phil


Specifications:
Camera: 40 EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
Metering: Evaluative
Exposure: 1/400s at f/5.6
Exposure Compensation +0.67
ISO: 800
Time: 6:30 AM

Converted in ACR
Cropped
Temperature and exposure as exposed
Slight S curve
Capture sharpened

CS3,Photoshop
Levels
Hue/Saturation: slight decrease in reds and selective color correction on breast whites
Selective noise reduction of background
Sharpening of eye and curves adjustment using APTATS-1
General sharpening

[Cheryl Flory]

Phil, love the sharpness of your image, and how you can see details in both the black and white areas. I might crop a bit more off the bottom to cut out the small blue area between the wing and leg.

Your detailed workflow is extremely helpful! thanks for taking the time to add it.

[James Shadle]

Beautiful subject, well exposed and very sharp.

I attached a little different crop, I of course assumed(you know what that does) you had the room for a crop like this in the original.

A little less room at the top, cropped out the blue under the wing and added more room in the area the gull was looking into.

I reduced the sharpening halo using the Gaussian blur.
I used the magic wand to select the blue background and applied .6 Gaussian Blur.

What do you think?

James

[Lance Peters]

Nice work James - repost works for me. The BG is gorgeous.

Well done

[Phil Ertel]

Thanks Cheryl and James,

I truly appreciate your input. I tried several different crops and couldn’t settle on one that was most pleasing to me. I like your suggestions and the repost. Thanks for the suggestion/tip on reducing the sharpening halo. I have learned a lot since joining his community and now am learning even more now that I started posting.

Regards,

Phil

[George DeCamp]

Home run for James!

Nice up close and personal image Phil. You are certainly on the right track here, James has been at it longer and brings some seasonings to the table for you to try and think about.

Keep them coming!

[Harold Davis]

love the repost, but it was a great base image. congrats on the capture. very sharp, beautiful light and love that eye!!

[Nonda Surratt]

Phil, love the image as presented, super sharp! James took it over the top

[Gus Cobos]

Congratulations Phil,
I like your image very much...good show...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Excellent repost by Darth !!!!

Phil I like the thought process while making the image You had a crop in mind since the brid was very close That is the way to work an image and come up with a winner!!! With these guys you have many options Don't forget head shots !!!! Can stay on the bird and wait for it to start calling !!!! Excellent !!!

[James Shadle]

Excellent repost by Darth !!!!

Phil I like the thought process while making the image You had a crop in mind since the brid was very close That is the way to work an image and come up with a winner!!! With these guys you have many options Don't forget head shots !!!! Can stay on the bird and wait for it to start calling !!!! Excellent !!!

Al made a very important point "thought process". The thought process, seeing an image is more important than technicals.

Technicals come fast with digital, the thought process and "seeing" are more difficult to master.

Darth

[Katie Rupp]

Phil, you have a great image here and the repost takes it too a new level. I agree with you, I'm learning so much from everyone!