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Thread: Gull Portrait

  1. #1
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    Default Gull Portrait

    Although a VERY common bird, I could not resist the beautiful light and willing model. This gull let me approach very closely (I was at 400mm zoom), and it looked like an attractive subject.



    1/320 sec @ f/5.6
    -1 EV
    no flash
    ISO 400
    EF 100-400mm IS
    Canon 40D

    Post Processing: Using Lightroom, I added some vibrance, a slight bit of WB temp, and upped the exposure by 1.3 stops. Obviously that means I shouldn't have been at -1 EV when shooting. Not sure what happened there - maybe I switched subjects and forgot to check by exposure compensation? Luckily I was able to save it in PP (yay digital!)

    I cropped slightly (to center the eye), resized and sharpened for the web. All comments greatly appreciated!

  2. #2
    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Default

    You've got good sharpness. I like the eye. I do find the bird a little tight in the frame, and would add some canvas primarily on the right. I would also add a sliver of canvas on the left. Have you thought about a horizontal crop?
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    BPN Member Julie Brown's Avatar
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    I am starting to pay more attention to the common birds myself! Makes for good practice.

    Hank, I like the HA, eye contact, and light. I agree with Doug about the tight crop. Nice portrait.:)
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    Default

    Hank, I really like Gull portraits. The lighting and the details look nice. I agree w/ Doug, it's a bit tight in the frame esp. the right.
    BTW- I loved your poem in Friends and Family, very well done.:)

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    Thanks Denise! I appreciate the compliment very much....

    And thanks Doug and Julie for the suggestions - I will definitely reframe and repost (hopefully this evening when I'm back at my home machine). I didn't think of cropping to a full head shot, but I'll give that a try as well.

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    I like the lookback pose, and overall well exposed. I feel a horizontal would be the only way to go here.

  7. #7
    Judy Lynn Malloch
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    Beautiful lighting and excellent exposure, detail and eye contact, I would add canvas on the left and more canvas on the right as it appears very tight. Well captured and many thanks for sharing.

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    BPN Viewer Dave Leroy's Avatar
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    For underexposing you certainly did a very nice job of recovering it.
    Nice soft light and it goes well with the pose and bg.

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    Here are my re-posts of the suggested crops.

    First, more area to the left and right of the gull's head:



    And here's a tighter horizontal crop of just the head. I gave this one a little bit of noise reduction (in lightroom). I also sharpened the eye just a little bit.

    Last edited by Hank Christensen; 03-27-2010 at 05:10 PM.

  10. #10
    BPN Viewer Dave Leroy's Avatar
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    I think either repost works well and takes care of the suggestions about the first post.
    I prefer the first of the reposts, but of course the decision is yours.

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