Black-headed gull

[Richard Stern]

A 1st winter bird with reflection at Chew Valley Lake, Somerset, England recently.

D300, 300 f/4 AF-S + 1.4TC.

1/1000, f/7.1, ISO640.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

Ah, a loverly first winter bird. Sweet light with a sweet reflection; bummer about the distorted head. When you have everything lined up in these situations, hold the shutter button down as the shape of the REFL will vary from instant to instant. Head angle fine point: with the bird angling slightly towards you, the head is actually turned away from the line of the body; it needed to be on straight here.

[Gary Esman]

Nice clean water and a beautiful bird. Sharp and exposure looks good. Wish the light was behind you.

[Arthur Morris]

On a second look: is the thin black line around the head and the neck evident on the RAW file or did you introduce it in post-processing?

[Joerg Rockenberger]

On a second look: is the thin black line around the head and the neck evident on the RAW file or did you introduce it in post-processing?

Artie, I think you mean the throat and chest area, right? I've been wondering also if there are some processing artifacts in that area as it looks a bit "cut-out" there. Also, there is a black "feature" in the water just behind the bird's primaries. At first I thought it is a ripple in the water but given that the water doesn't show anything similar in the area I am wondering. The blacks are blocked because of the side lighting I guess.

Nice pose, sharpness and composition. JR

[Paul Randall]

Agree a slight head turn towards you might have improved the image a little. Also looks a bit contrasty which is adding to the look of the black outline that others have mentioned. Apart from that, love the lighting and the warped reflection does'nt bother me too much...kinda cool:)

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, I think you mean the throat and chest area, right? I've been wondering also if there are some processing artifacts in that area as it looks a bit "cut-out" there. Also, there is a black "feature" in the water just behind the bird's primaries. At first I thought it is a ripple in the water but given that the water doesn't show anything similar in the area I am wondering. The blacks are blocked because of the side lighting I guess. Nice pose, sharpness and composition. JR

Yes, and good concerns. Richard, can you please post the full frame unaltered original capture here please.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Will do later today when I get home and have access to my home computer.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you sir. Have a great day. What kind of work do you do?

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

As requested - Here is the original raw file, re-sized for BPN but otherwise untouched. For the original post I cropped and sharpened the main subject, did a little adjustment to tone down the whites on the neck and breast, cleaned up the bg, and there was an odd pale line on the body, which I cloned out - but my result may be the dark line that you're talking about. And BTW, I'm a Doc. - an internal medicine specialist - still working full time, but always trying to make time for birding and photography when I can!

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Richard, I cropped the ORIG approximately as you did and then created a JPEG using my generic action which includes enough sharpening for a sharp image. The result is posted here. Here are my thoughts: the original image was not at all sharp and there was a hint of the black line in the original. As it needed a ton of sharpening to look presentable the black line was intensified.

Now, heres the worse news: much of the front part of the face and neck are way over-exposed with the highlights badly clipped. Take some time and get to the ER and study the stuff on saving the whites. Here you would need to go back and try to recover the highlights in ACR :) Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but you did a pretty good job of getting it by most of us, even me to start :)