Coming in for a Landing

[Kevin Giannini]

Hello,

Taken in North Carolina - I observed this group of Laughing Gulls flying around near Fort Fisher landing on a post nearby so I tried positioning myself to be in a decent light for the next landing. Taken with the Canon 7D with Canon 300mm f/4 IS lens ISO 200 f/6.3 and 1/1600. I added a bit of canvas left and bottom. Thanks for looking.
Kevin

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Kevin,

Greetings. The head looks great especially the blacks. Stopping down a bit might help bring more of the body into focus, but I don't really understand what I'm seeing in terms of what is in focus and what is blurred (the head and feet seem to be sharp in focus while the higher part of the body seems blurred). Are you doing some selective processing?

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Kevin Giannini]

Hi Michael,
Thanks for the comments. All the adjustments I did were global, except for a final sharpening which I applied to the already in- focus parts of the bird, which were the body, head and feet. The wings are moving/oof somewhat. I'm not sure why the upper body seems oof while the body and head are in focus. Perhaps it's the exposure?
Regards,
Kevin

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Kevin,

This is one of my favorite gulls and a nice action shot. I like the aperture selection for that lens but might set ISO to 400 giving more exposure flexibility. When you double the ISO you add a stop of light. This could assist with a higher shutter speed and spawn the critical sharp feather detail so important in bird photography. The head area could use a round of sharpening. I like the open mouth and focused eyes, nice gesture/movement. Birds in flight are challenging and this is well done. I am alright with the body shadow since the head area is well lit. Of course, it would be stronger w/o any shadow on the body. Thanks for sharing - keep em coming.

[Stan Cunningham]

Agree with Jeff above, good shot. But is the mouth really that red, not familiar with the species? Or did you add some saturation there?

[Kevin Giannini]

Hi Stan - thanks for the comment! Yes, the mouth really is that red - I did nothing to add it there, although I did adjust saturation a bit globally. Even the RAW file looks that red.
Regards,
Kevin

[Paul Guris]

There's a lot to like about this image. I love the mouth being open. The whites seemed to be very well exposed, the red pops, and the image is pretty sharp. Two things don't work for me, though. The first is the shadow across the body. For me it's just too extensive. The second is that the wings take up a large part of the subject but there is almost no detail on any part of them due to angle, softness, and shadow. When I see wings I like that show little detail, they are usually minimized (i.e. edge on or pulled in) as compared to the subject's body. Just my take, FWIW.

Stan: The red on Laughing Gulls can be really intense when they're in a high breeding state. High hormone levels really jazz up the soft parts in gulls. I've even seen Herring Gulls with bright almost pink/orange colored legs when their hormones are at their peak.