This image was taken at Agate Beach, north of Patricks Point, California on Thanksgiving weekend during high tide. Because the sea gull is so small in the image I followed Al's advise, from a previous image, and cropped to place him in a corner. The image is cropped heavily and I did some sharpening with Photoshop. This photo is in full color though it looks very grey.
Love the placement Jeannette Framing is excellent Would suggest going a little brighter particularly the bird Not sure all the steps that were taken in PS but will give a suggestion below
After cropping and noise reduction go the levels Start with right slider and hold alt key moving left (screen turns dark Stop when you see highlights ) Do the same for the left slider Look at the overall image and lighten or darken with the mid tone slider
This should get you close If you need go to the bird select and lo local changes
I like this image a lot !!!! Great eye for composition !!!!
The composition really works!! Al is on the money and trying to get you more contrast by setting your white points and black points...I do exactly (using the slider in levels) what he is saying every time I post process an image.
Hi Jeanette, I agree with the previous posters - great composition! I really like the image, maybe you can repost after trying those adjustments? Some noise reduction also would be good.
Al - just learned something new in PS again - holding ALT while doing levels. So much to learn... Many thanks!
Christof
Thank you so much for the helpful critiques. I used the levels as Al, suggested and what a difference it made in the image. I really liked the image before and now I love it!
I do question if I went to far or not far enough on the Blacks and on the Whites? I do not always have a very good eye for color.
You might even go in the opposite direction with this by going totally mono and adding more noise.;) I tried it, and it looks pretty good. I don't think the big frame work here either, but that's just me. It's a very nice image.
I tried your suggestion of going mono and adding noise. I also removed the frame. I am not sure that I did the mono/noise effect correctly, however what I came up with did have a dramatic effect. If this is different than what you produced I would l be grateful to know the steps that you took to accomplish the effect that you were talking about.
Thank you for your critique and helpful information, I am learning so much from everyone here at bird photographers.
Sea Gull
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