Puffin in the water

[goatly]

Hi
Someone offered to have one of my pictures printed as a Christmas gift. I think I will choose this image of a puffin landing in the water. I am relatively new to wildlife photography and have done very little post processing, so any advice on making this look the best it can would be appreciated. (Any other advice is also welcome.) I have added the original image (jpg out of camera, though I have the raw as well) and two attempts at crops and playing with the colors etc. The photo is at 600mm, f/7.1, 1/1600 sec, and 400 ISO.
Thanks!

 

[ssheipel]

My answer is almost always the same on preference questions -- the one you like the most is the right one (all other technical stuff for printing being equal). Welcome to this forum.

 

[tclune]

While @ssheipel gave the right answer, I would just offer my evaluation: The _o2 shot is the clear winner to my eye -- the reflection in _o1 isn't interesting enough to sacrifice the detail of the bird by including it. FWIW

 

[DRwyoming]

Great capture of a very cool subject.

I am relatively new to wildlife photography and have done very little post processing, so any advice on making this look the best it can would be appreciated. (Any other advice is also welcome.)

I'd probably crop to something between the final two images but closer to the final one. I'd give the Puffin a bit more breathing room compared to the final crop, especially to the right of the frame as that's where its implied sight line takes the viewer. Personally I'd probably go for a rectangular crop like 2x3, 4x5 or 5x7 aspect ratio in part to allow that sight room in the frame.

I might also use the Highlight tool to bring out a bit more texture in the white feathers and perhaps add a subtle vignette to slightly edge darken the final cropped image.

[edit] IOW, something like this though this exact crop is just an idea and maybe not the way you'd see it...

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

FWIW, the edits were basically setting the black and white point sliders, bringing out a bit of shadow detail in the face and eye with an adjustment brush, bringing down the highlights to retain some detail in the white feathers and adding a bit of vignette on the final cropped image.

You can no doubt do a better job starting from the original raw file.

 

[goatly]

Great capture of a very cool subject.

I'd probably crop to something between the final two images but closer to the final one. I'd give the Puffin a bit more breathing room compared to the final crop, especially to the right of the frame as that's where its implied sight line takes the viewer. Personally I'd probably go for a rectangular crop like 2x3, 4x5 or 5x7 aspect ratio in part to allow that sight room in the frame.

I might also use the Highlight tool to bring out a bit more texture in the white feathers and perhaps add a subtle vignette to slightly edge darken the final cropped image.

[edit] IOW, something like this though this exact crop is just an idea and maybe not the way you'd see it...
View attachment 75872
FWIW, the edits were basically setting the black and white point sliders, bringing out a bit of shadow detail in the face and eye with an adjustment brush, bringing down the highlights to retain some detail in the white feathers and adding a bit of vignette on the final cropped image.

You can no doubt do a better job starting from the original raw file.

Thank you, there are several helpful tips here! I like the crop you suggested because, as tclune said, the reflection isn't that interesting. I will try these suggestions with the raw file.

 

[Winston Churchill (Sir)]

Beautiful photo and I think the suggestion on the crop from Dave will make this photo complete.