Seagull Pic

I took this with the K100d with a 50mm 1.7
Critique welcome
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A manual focus one? Damn good, if so. Pretty good, even if not!! You even got them to look at the camera

Edit: in fact, I'd say damn good either way. Doing this even with AF with them this close and moving diagonally towards you would not be easy - and they're small, too, so AF brings its own problems.

Edit 2: Strewth, and the lens was almost wide open too.

I'm seriously impressed with this.

Chris I guess i got lucky. It was an A lens and the only one i had with me. My wife had the car keys and i left my bag in the car. They were flying very low and checking me out for feed i suspect. Do you think i should do anything with the background or just leave it as is. Thanks

Personally I'd be inclined to leave it. The photograph speaks for itself as the excellent capture it is, and the way they're both looking towards you is the icing on the cake.

If you haven't applied any sharpening then the birds might benefit from an extremely subtle touch (I had a little play, and USM 55%, radius 1 pixel, threshold 1 seems quite pleasing at the resolution you've posted here).

But otherwise I wouldn't mess with it.

As for luck, the probability of getting it this good entirely by accident is extremely small. Don't put yourself down

Much appreciated Chris Thanks. I will give your suggestions a try and see how it comes out. Thanks again

Wow, taken with a 50 mm that's really great, they must have been close. I would leave the background as is as you got good separation of the foreground. Getting into the pedantic, it seems to me as if the heads are a bit overexposed. Also the sharpening has left a few halos (e.g. under the leftmost wing in the picture).

Now, you didn't say wether this is a crop (but considering it was taken with the 50 mm I would think it is) and/or if you shot it in RAW. With RAW you could work on both, sharpening and exposure a bit.

But I don't want to get hung up in minor deficiencies here. I like the light and detail of the feathers on the bodies, good detail still under the wings. Turning their heads the same way is just briliant and I like them against the trees in the background.

Great capture!

Thanks Prieni
It is cropped too 100% and i did a rush touchup in silkypix but i plan to have another go at it in PS.
It is a good shot and i was surprised a bit at the outcome.

Such a good reception on the first one. So heres another. Copped to 100% but untouched.

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Good, but not as good

Quit while you're ahead

PS If you're going to do a lot of these, give 'em a stop less exposure; then you'll stand a better chance of sorting out the highlight on the top of their heads.

In strong sunshine conditions I turn down the 'contrast' a notch or two in the menu on the K10D I have- it's like printing on a softer grade of paper to retain the whites. ( Benefit of many years DARKROOM experience!)

nice shot - well caught .. are they silver gulls there in NSW?

I assume you mean 'cropped' but how do you crop to 100%. Does that mean you remove nothing or everything?

As you see the pic here it is at 100% in actual size so i guess that means i have taken everything out from around the birds. zoomed in so to speak.

[quote] Lilly Wrote

nice shot - well caught .. are they silver gulls there in NSW? [quote]

Lilly i have never heard of them being called Silver Gulls before. I only know them as seagulls. If you are refering to the colour they are a brilliant white

Nice shot, unfortunately theres an awful lot of burned out areas, gulls ( and other white birds) are very difficult to capture.

Birds in flight are difficult to capture at the best of times but white plumage makes it even more so, but dont worry about it, I still haven't got a decent gull in flight pic after 25 years or more