Gannet Stare

[zanmilligan]

Morning all,

I took this shot of a Northern Gannet recently, but would be keen to hear what you think.



System: Canon 7d \ 300mm L F4 IS

Aperture: F4
Shutter: 1/8000
ISO: 200

[Ben Harris]

Love the expression and eye contact. I think you lost some definition to the wing on the left side, maybe some levels adjustment would fix it.

Too bad about the shadow across the eye on the right.

[Meesh Fink]

I agree with Ben, it would have been nice to catch him in better lighting.

That said, it's a cool photo. :)

[Bob Decker]

Definately a great catch in what looks to have been challenging conditions. I've yet to discover this place where the lighting and conditions are always perfect. So we have to learn to make the best of what's delt to us. I think you did well in this case. You may be able to improve on it a bit in post if you feel the image is worth the effort. Personally I like the diagonal spread of the wings across the corners and the "thirdish" placement of the face in the image. Nice job on the composition. Add to that the wonderful eye contact and I think it definately rates the effort.

[zanmilligan]

Thanks for all the replies and comments, it's really helpful and exactly the kind of advice I was hoping to get from this forum!

There's not much I could have done about the lighting really, I shot this from the back of a fishing trawler during a survey trip with work and this was the only time the bird came in for a look at anything other than the nets, so I'm pretty pleased I got it at all :)

As far as post processing goes, is there anything specific you would recommend? I'll go back to teh raw file and keep it a bit lighter in the shadows at least and see if that helps. I'm not very adventurous with processing and tend to stick with basic curves and sharpening for the most part so if there are any tricks worth trying please let me know.

Thanks again!

[Lance Peters]

HI - Agree with the above comments - angle and quality of light being the main issues.
Do like the direct stare.
Could try some S/H in PS5 if you have it -seems to work better than other version of photoshop - doesnt seem to introduce Halo's as easily.

[Dave Mills]

Hi, agree with comments relating to angle and light which are 2 key areas. I would also see if detail could be brought up in the area behind the head. The HA is a plus...

[Alfred Forns]

.. tried some shadow/highlight in PS5 but the noise came out in a big way !!! For this one just softer light would have helped, the dynamic range is such that you can not do much better !!! ... perhaps having the bird right overhead and opening up?

Unusual crop works well for me !!!

[zanmilligan]

Hiya,
Thanks for the PS Advice, althoguh I'm afraid I'm going to have to show my newbie colours here! I've figured out that S\H is shadow\highlight (I think!), but what is HA?

Alfred, thanks for having a go at it, I'll try going back to the raw file and adjusting the levels from there before sharpening and see if it makes any difference. Cheers!