Head Hunter...

[Arthur Morris]

When I was up in NY, I knew that the Herring Gulls on Long Island would be in breeding plumage. I wanted to find a bright one with a white, white head and a perfect bill and then create a tight head portrait. And that is pretty much what I did :)

Canon 600mm f/4L IS lens with the 2X II TC and the EOS-1D MIII from the car with the BLUBB (Big Lens Ultiimate Beanbag) on the window. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/400 sec. at f/11.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Man the gulls look so good at this time of year - very hard to ignore!! I like this alot, and the grayish BG complements the gull's plumage very nicely.

[Steve Maxson]

I looks to me like you achieved your goal admirably. What's not to like here? A beautiful image.

[Mike Milicia]

You certainly found a beautiful specimen and a great bg to go with it !
Great comp and dof.

I hesitate to say anything since I know that I sometimes tend to err on the side of making images too bright but this looks a bit dark to my eyes, especially given how bright white these birds are.
Color also seems to be a bit on the cool side on my monitor.
Here's my humble attempt to lighten it a bit by bringing in the white point in Levels and adding a bit of Yellow and Magenta using a Color Balance adjustment.

[Judd Patterson]

White indeed! Love the great breeding plumage here. I agree with Mike that the original seems a bit gray and whiter plumage helps the image to stand out even more. I gave it a quick levels and curves adjustment, where I attempted to keep the whites just 'barely' under control while also boosting contrast to highlight available feather shadow detail. I'll come back later to reevaluate my attempt...sometimes it takes a break to objectively determine if an edit goes too far!

[Jan Wegener]

I agree that the whites are played too save in your initial post. The last one looks the best, but is almost too bright. I don't like the huge space on top and on the left side, so I'd go for a tighter crop.

[Sid Garige]

Artie,

One thing I always wanted to ask and I guess here my chance. I am not sure but logically it works for me. We read from left to right. looking at this image I started with head, then the point of interest birds eye and then to the beak and ended up in empty space. When I flipped image horizontally, I started with empty space and ended with point of interest. It always made me feel good ending with point of interest. Does it make sense flipping image for this reason?

[Arthur Morris]

First off, thanks to all for the attention given this image. Of the first two re-posts, I like Mike's best; Judd's is just too light on this monitor (that after checking my calibration strip). BTW, the BKGR is a parking lot. There is of course considerable leeway when optimizing an image; personal taste and having been there all come into play. For example, when I made this image it was pretty much cloudy dark. Lastly, I tend to like my images a bit darker than most (though I am trying to process lighter than I did a month ago...)

Jan: what "huge space"??? I would not change the COMP one iota.

Sid: the bird looks backwards to me in your re-post... :D

ps: the birds can't read! Seriously, it simply does not matter to me. Your repost looks odd to me because I was there... I tend to like my birds facing to my right. That does not make a lot of sense either.

[Jim Poor]

Ok, this is where I show how odd I am. . .

Great image as is for sure, but one thing I would have tried is to get an angle where we can see clearly through the "nostril" to the other side. I had this happen on accident once and really liked the result so now I try for it whenever I can.

Back into my cave of oddities now ;)

P.S. I know that would change the angle of the head to the sensor plane, but still . . .

[Arthur Morris]

Ok, this is where I show how odd I am. . . Great image as is for sure, but one thing I would have tried is to get an angle where we can see clearly through the "nostril" to the other side. I had this happen on accident once and really liked the result so now I try for it whenever I can. Back into my cave of oddities now ;) P.S. I know that would change the angle of the head to the sensor plane, but still . . .

Hey Jim, I love when that happens but I never look for it; when I "get it," it is totally serendipitous. If you put your reading glasses on, you can see just a tad of the background through the nares (top right).

[Maxis Gamez]

I have to agree with Artie about whatever which way you photograph the bird, so you are out of luck on this one Sid :)

I think Judd's re-post stands out a lot more. Looks very white compare to the others.

Either way a very nice image with a "classic" pose.

[geothomas]

I love the colors and the sharpness of the eye. My only comment/question is that this seems almost perfectly centered in the frame and I would think a bit of crop off the left would have this adhere more to the rule of thirds.