Northern Gannet Couple

[Kathy G]

I like this photo of the gannet couple. But the lighting was not great - about 11 am which brought out harsh shadows. I have processed the photo with Photolab 3 and then with Color Efex Pro (which darkened the background and brightened the gannets and added a little saturation). But I am still not really happy with the edit. Does anyone have any suggestions for improvement. Please note that the photo has been cropped a bit and could be cropped more if that is a suggestion. Shot with Nikon D850 and Nikon 200-500 lens at 500mm. ISO 640 F6.3 1/2000 -1/3 EV
Thanks in advance

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[DRwyoming]

Beautiful birds, I love the subtle transition of color from their heads to their necks. I wouldn't crop any further and would even consider loosening up the crop a bit if the background and overall setting works at a slightly wider view.

I love the moment, the sharpness of the one bird's eyes and the interaction between them and though I threw out some things to play with, the big distraction is the very bright and possibly blown out tail feathers. If you shot this in raw format I'd probably go all the way back to the raw conversion to try to bring down those bright feathers and recover some detail.

Great moment you captured there and I like the overall scene so I'd see if I could deal with that brightness issue and maybe try some of the other stuff but abandon those things if it makes it garish or doesn't help.

 

[Kathy G]

Thanks DR. What you like about the photo is what I like - especially the moment. The tail feather on the back gannet is clipped - which bothers immensely. I have tried to decrease the highlights some more in the very white parts of both gannets. And, I have pulled the crop out - not to the full photo because their is part of another gannet that is cropped out. Here is the jpg from the edited raw version. I don't think the eye pops as much in this version although I did try to get the same pop with the raw editor that Color Efex gave the eye. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions.

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[DRwyoming]

I see what you mean about the eye pop in the tighter crop version. I'd say it's sixes and you could make either or something in between work depending on the emphasis.

Regardless of trying out different expressions of the same image, it's a great moment and a very workable shot in challenging light. Nice job!

 

[Kathy G]

Thanks DR. I might just put this re-edited raw file back into Color Efex and see what happens - I do like what it did to the eye. Thanks for the encouragement regarding the photo. The blown highlights are really disappointing though. Guess I'll keep my day job!

 

[DRwyoming]

The blown highlights are really disappointing though. Guess I'll keep my day job!

Nahh, day jobs are no fun. Just keep getting out there and the stars will align with more field time

(said as someone who took a day job and now fits photography around the edges...)

 

[Tibor Hrnko]

It is IMO very hard to get a good picture of birds perching on rocks. Rocks look quite often very controasty and there is usually not enough space to visually separate the two. Notice how difficult it is to concentrate on birds and disregard details of surroundings when looking at this picture.

 

[Kathy G]

It is IMO very hard to get a good picture of birds perching on rocks. Rocks look quite often very controasty and there is usually not enough space to visually separate the two. Notice how difficult it is to concentrate on birds and disregard details of surroundings when looking at this picture.

Tibor, you are correct about this photo. Without a fast lens it was next to impossible to blur the background. I used F 6.3 but the fastest F stop on my lens is 5.6. The gannets are right against the rocks. If I had taken even one step closer I would have risked falling in the ocean!!

 

[Tibor Hrnko]

Tibor, you are correct about this photo. Without a fast lens it was next to impossible to blur the background. I used F 6.3 but the fastest F stop on my lens is 5.6. The gannets are right against the rocks. If I had taken even one step closer I would have risked falling in the ocean!!

I know, it was just compositional remark. (Sry)