Ring-billed Gull banking

[Bill Dix]

D90; 80-400 VR @ 370mm. IO 800. f/7.1 @ 1/2000s. Matrix metering @ 0EV. HH.

Practiced on gulls while hoping the eagle would fly by (he didn't). This fellow banked almost enough to catch the full effects of the late sun (1/2 hour before sunset last night), but caught some shadow on his right wing. Made a slight reduction to exposure in RAW capture. Desaturated sky about 8 points but might have done more; increased sat on bird a few points; lightened the wing shadow a bit; sharpened. Cropped to vertical. Question: does that work, or should I have left it as horizontal to give him some flying room? C&C appreciated.

[David Stephens]

I really like this pose and the shadow is good, in my view, giving the feel that the sun is low and he's banking, which is true. The eye contact is good and focus is spot-on.

The color temp of the sky looks slightly off to me, leaning toward very slightly green. I don't see how any of your mentioned changes would cause that, but it's not quite right on my cheap monitor at work. The bird seems just right, given the time of day.

Dave

[Bill Dix]

I really like this pose and the shadow is good, in my view, giving the feel that the sun is low and he's banking, which is true. The eye contact is good and focus is spot-on.

The color temp of the sky looks slightly off to me, leaning toward very slightly green. I don't see how any of your mentioned changes would cause that, but it's not quite right on my cheap monitor at work. The bird seems just right, given the time of day.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I agree about the sky color. It became particularly noticeable when I put this side by side with one of my previous gull images. I don't know what I did but I'll see if I can cool it down a bit.

[Peter Farrell]

Beautiful! Nice light, pose and detail. The color of the sky is a little unusual, but I like it.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bill Shadow wise I wish it was not there, another millisecond and the wing would have been straight ... just luck !!

Do like the position and also like the vertical framing !! Image is sharp and well exposed. You can play with the bg blue sky and alter the saturation a bit, at times it improves the look, this looks intense but good !!! Glad your going after gulls, neat birds !!!

[Bill Dix]

Here's a repost with an adjustment to the sky color. Took just a bit of the green out. Might have gone even further.

[Myer Bornstein]

I like the second picture better, more a late day effect

[David Stephens]

Nice improvement Bill.

[Katie Rupp]

Lovely light and pose, nice details and the repost makes it shine.