An otherwise dull image was enhanced with very heavy contrast adjustment
that really brought out the late day light well in the sea grass having me visualize
it as fire. In addition, I lightened the entire head of the gull and then darkened its
bright side slightly. I then darkened the light side eye ring slightly as well as the
entire breast and belly of the bird. The foreground sand was cleaned up significantly
while darkening it slightly. Selective noise reduction was made in the background
with the image cropped. Tripod used while I was kneeling in a tidal cut in the
northern lagoon. The image was initially processed in CS5 RAW (tip from Rucci)
although photographed in JPEG. The image was auto sharpened.
Laughing Gull at Fort De Soto Park
Tierra Verde, Florida USA
Although usually I'm not fond of such heavy side lighting I gotta admit I like this one. Even with the gull staring straight at us I like the off-centered comp. Great "flaming" BG. I do think that there is a bit too much FG though...a slight crop below would work, and I would eliminate the OOF grass sticking out the head. There are also some clipped highlights on the gull's shoulder to tame. Thanks for sharing, and for detailing your PS work.
The flaming background looks great! I'm not a big fan of the sidelighting, and some of the whites on the sunny side could be toned down a bit. I like the idea of trimming some of the FG, perhaps eliminating the OOF sand where your copyright now resides. Nice job explaining your PP.
Hey Bob,
For sidelighting......this turned out pretty good! I really like the BG.....so reprocessing this image with suggestion from Doug and Daniel above should make this even stronger!
Laughing Gull at De Soto
Reply With Quote
