[Mistlefoot]

This shot was taken last January, about 6 weeks after getting my first DSLR, the K-30. At the time I had 3 lenses (WR 18-55 and Tamron 90mm 2.8 Macro) but the 55-300 was by far my most used and favourite.

This shot was taken on a rainy overcast typical West Coast January day. I was in a stage of learning, that for me, meant 90% of my fun came from playing with Bokeh or any unique background blur. I saw this boat and there was a Raven on the railing. Despite my attempts the Raven kept moving and I could not get him between me and the boat. Then I gained the co-operation of this Seagull for one shot before he too decided that co-operating was not part of his day.

This remains one of my favourit early shots. I added Lightroom to my photography ritual about 2 weeks ago and have done almost nothing to touch this photo up. I can't help but think that I can gain more from this photo but I always find myself close to the original by the time I have finished "playing". Looking for any thoughts/critiques on this photo or Lightroom advice to bring more life to it.

[altopiet]

IMO, the background, although OOF, is distracting...the moment I looked at the image, my eyes were drawn to the OOF boat and people, probably not your intention...

[photolady95]

Ditto what Christo said, and I find the bird's color a bit dull. Even on cloudy days, a birds color can be enhanced with a bit more contrast.

[Miguel]

Two kinds of feedback here:

Technical--In Lightroom you can do just general image brightening and sharpening. It seems way too flat and on the soft side now. Increase exposure, highlights, add clarity and vibrance, and sharpen significantly.

Aesthetic--I like the position of the seagull just sitting on the rail--especially the webbed feet. That said, seagulls are very ordinary and uninteresting to many. The shot is too centered; and a couple of factors suck the attention away from the subject of the image including the red color in the background and the scale of the folks in the boat. The ordinariness of a seagull, plus its size, means that it won't command much dominance in an image, especially at the dead-on angle of the shot.

I think your intention is photographic and that's good. With more shots your art will improve.

M

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Last edited by Miguel; 12-03-2013 at 10:42 AM.

[normhead]

Turn curves on, adjust your slider bars to the ends of the curve, you aren't using enough of your dynamic range. Then maybe add some definition to the bird with brushes, to bring out the feather detail a bit more. But, your focus point is on the birds chest, you need to use selective focus to move it back to the bird's eye, and maybe stop down a bit for a bit wider depth of field. It's nice to have great bokeh, but your main goal should be to capture the subject. I think you're a little too narrow on this guy.

[Mistlefoot]

Thank you for all your suggestions and I'll play around a bit and repost with some of your insights added. The boat was meant to grab attention in an out of focus fashion but was drifting towards shore as I was attempting to take this shot so is larger then my original intent was. I have a few more weeks with Lightroom under my belt so I am sure I can pull some of the colours out of the bird.

I understand that seagulls are rather common and boring BUT took hundreds of pictures of seagulls when I first got my camera, so that when I had opportunities for eagles/osprey and what not I'd have some grasp of how to use my camera.

Thank you again for your suggestions and I look forward to making some adjustments....

[Bruce Clark]

Agree with above comments. I suggest a decent crop to remove most of the background and with the bird to left of centre. This leaves the people in the boat unrecognizable as such and less of a distraction. I look forward to seeing an edited version.