King of the cliffs

My very first attempt at bird photography. I liked the idea of an

"environmental" portrait, and decided to get some of the beautiful

background this cute little fella was staring at...

 

Your comments are most welcome, and in particolar suggestions on

whether this should be cropped or not.

Bellissima, come molte altre nel tuo portfolio.

The bird is well composed and shot but I'm afraid the big blob in the background is distracting. My vote : crop. Regards, Jack

Lovely picture

 

I'd go with traditional 4:5 ratio. Regards,

The idea of environmental portrait is good. I like the flowers and the moos where the "pulcinella di mare" poses but don't like the black rock in the background. It turns eyes the attention on the bird. I would like only the blue sea for the background.

Thank you all for the feedback on this puffin shot. Although I am quite fond of the rock in the sea, I guess this has to become a vertical crop: I just wanted to be confirmed this.

I will soon rework-and-repost.

Actually I've a good hundred puffin shots, so this might even make a small series.

The Sigma's long lens makes a nice bokeh and focus the Puffin clearly. You may have oversharpen a wee bit as I can see a white outline on it's nape.

 

Perhaps you can try using another layer with soft light and use filter, other and high pass. Works for me, just like sharpening only without the halo.

Alec, thanks for the hint.

Actually, what I think you see there is my poor PS'ing away a highlight on the water just on its side. I will try to improve that side of the picture once I get around cropping it.

One of your very few animals photos and I believe you've done a fairly good job here.