Kittiwake

Spent a day at Bempton yesterday, not too much sun which was a good thing, but rather windy. Found Kittiwake in flight almost impossible! This was something in compemnsation perhhaps.
C and C welcome please.
EOS40d+canon 400mmf5.6
Exposure 1/1600
F 7.1
Aperture Priority
ISO 320
Exposure -0.67
White Balance - Auto

Great interaction in a great setting, I would normally have liked a touch more room below but in this case the chosen composition works for me anyway.... perhaps a little bit more sharpening for presentation but that is hardly a nit.....

Very nice composition as it is. Great action / interaction with the birds.
Robert

Well timed and captuted and nice feather detail-Need abit more sharpening

Dave

Agree with he sharpening but the image works well for me. The colours on the cliff and the contrast of the red in the mouths of these birds all adds to the spectacle. Nicely done.

Brett

Good shot and agree a bit of sharpening would improve it further

Stephen

Good shot and agree a bit of sharpening would improve it further

Stephen

Looks great - good interaction and spots of colour from the flowers and open mouths.

NIce shot Kim I like the composition and everything works well together, I also agree that a touch more sharpening would improve an already good image.


regards


Ian

I like it Kim especially the comp, action and colours, but I would agree that some more sharpening would improve it. I suspect that it is not quite sharp in the original as it seems to take a lot of usm to make it stand out, try smart sharpen at 50%, 1 pixel, remove gaussian blur - that seems too work better to me.
Eric

Thanks for all the comments, I have tried sharpenning but I am at a loss how to remove gaussian blur as I did not use it, am I missing the point here? Anyway I attach the sharpened version, I think it looks better although perhaps I can see a line round the edges ??- thank you for the advice, much appreciated

Hi Kim
Lovely shot. I think the second is over done a bit. I too am confused about the ref. to gaussian blur .
Cheers
John

A well timed shot with perfect exposure. Great stuff. When shooting birds on cliffs, sometimes its good to compose with them higher in the frame, so you have the impression of depth below. I think sharpening is too much on the 2nd, but don't worry. Anyone here can see its a sharp shot and its just for presentation.

When I tried to sharpen this with unsharp mask, it didn't seem to work as well as it usually does, so I resorted to 'smart sharpen' There are three options to remove and you have to elect one of them, gaussian (which is the default on my screen) , motion and lens blur. I tried them all in turn and felt that gaussian option gave the best result. Removing lens blur I felt was a very close second and the motion blur option was the worst. I didn't say I knew why it worked only that I felt it did. I admit I don't understand half the stuff that I do, although things are improving, but I have a habit of messing with other peoples images as well as my own in an effort to improve. I'm sorry if I have confused anyone. Eric