Seagull surveying the surf

[rokkstar]

I got this shot of a seagull waiting for the right set at Bondi today. Taken with the Sigma 70-300mm

Comments welcome.



Cheers
Matt

[Matt. K]

rokkstar
Neat and in the middle...and I love the shade of blue you captured in the background!

[W00DY]

I got this shot of a seagull waiting for the right set at Bondi today. Taken with the Sigma 70-300mm

Cheers
Matt

Great shot of the gull, I like it.

Can I ask how much PP you have done to get these colours?

No matter what I try I can't seem to get these vivid colours straight from the camera. I have always wondered if people actually can get this result with no PP or do you pump up the colour or something in Photoshop?

Cheers,

W00DY

[christiand]

Hi Woody,

do you use a circular polarising filter at all ?
I do from time to time and it makes quite a difference.


Cheers
CD

[rokkstar]

Thanks guys.

Woody, the colour from the camera was pretty good. All I did here was a levels PP. The histogram was dead in the centre but the hightlights and shadow arrows were a little way away from the edges.

I didnt touch colour at all.

Matt

[W00DY]

Hi Woody,

do you use a circular polarising filter at all ?
I do from time to time and it makes quite a difference.


Cheers
CD

Hi CD,

Yeah I do use a CP and have noticed a difference with it on, but nothing to this extent. Usually I can only see a difference in the sky if there are clouds.

<stupid warning> Is there a right and wrong way to use a CP??? I guess I have always just rotated it until the sky looks a little darker. Is there anything else you need to know?

W00DY

[kurokaze204]

I like the colour too. Only thing I'm not hot about in the thin strip of sky at the top. I would have shown more or cropped it out.

[BBJ]

Nice looking gull, like the colours as well, the dark blue back ground sets it off.
well done

[kipper]

Oh I hate you........I had like 100 shots of a bloody huge seagull in the UK with a lovely night sunset backdrop. However I forgot to copy them to my portable drive and then when I went out on another shoot I formatted the CF......grrrr.

[birddog114]

Oh I hate you........I had like 100 shots of a bloody huge seagull in the UK with a lovely night sunset backdrop. However I forgot to copy them to my portable drive and then when I went out on another shoot I formatted the CF......grrrr.

That's your problem from the beginning, many members advised you to have more than CF cards in your bags while you're travelling.

[ozimax]

Of all the billions of seagull shots, this one is special, well done.

Max

[Link]

Great shot, I like the bright colours and the simple, but strong composition. Looking at the pictures, I have the impression you must have been lying on the grass to take this shot and the perspective makes this shot very engaging (you're not l'ooking down' on the seagull)

Well done!

Link.

[christiand]

Woody,

what are your camera settings such as:

saturation

sharpness

colour mode

tone compensation

hue adjustment

Cheers
CD

[W00DY]

Woody,

what are your camera settings such as:

saturation

sharpness

colour mode

tone compensation

hue adjustment

Cheers
CD

At the moment I have everything left as default except colour mode which I changed to Mode II (Adobe RGB).

I guess I should experiment a little with the in camera settings

W00DY

[kipper]

I had two 512mb cards Birddog, so I wasn't limited to one. I'll also be looking at getting a larger card soon - atleast 2gb. There was also atleast a week between when I took the last lot of photos and formatting them so it wasn't like I accidently did it on the same outting so the data should of been transferred off the CF cards. I was just stupid, and forgot to do it.

[sirhc55]

Very nice capture Matt - looks like he was just waiting to have his photo taken

[christiand]

Woody,

my camera settings are:

saturation: +enhanced

sharpness: +1

colour mode: IIIa (sRGB)

tone compensation: custom (could be due to custom curve ?)

hue adjustment: -3

I have adopted these settings without necessarily having a clear understanding of every single setting.
They seem to work for me and it is only in flat light that I may
find that images are a little flat.

HTH

Cheers
CD

[Matty B]

Yep, better than the ave. seagull portrait. I love the well saturated colours, still looks plenty natural, head tilt is a good quirk. Don't care if / how much diddle / fiddle factor there is, we are making images here......
this one's a goodie.

[kipper]

The seagulls that I was taking photos of were Herron Gulls and they were that big they made the Aussie gulls look small. These suckers almost needed clearance to land. Very tame too because all the tourists give them fish and chips. Was so annoyed because I sat in the car with the 70-300G mounted and rested on the window snapping atleast 100 shots of the bird and the surrounding coast as the sun was about to disappear  PS. Very nice seagull

[rokkstar]

Don't care if / how much diddle / fiddle factor there is, we are making images here......

I agree, but I always feel that I dont want to take it too far. It's that age old PP discussion again, but I still want to retain the natural element to the shot.

Kipper, bad luck about the card mate, and losing all the seagull shots. At least it means you have an excuse to go out again and recapture.

Matt