Little Blue after breakfast

[Dennis Zaebst]

Taken at Ding Darling this last January. I got as low as I could under the circumstances, but this bird was about 3 feet below the edge of the road, and about 8 feet from the shore.

Canon 1D Mark IV, ISO 800;
500 mm f/4L IS + EF 1.4x TC II
1/200 sec. @ f/13 (not sure why I stopped down this far, but there it is, except to say the shutter speed didn't matter because the bird was still).

Post processed in LR 4.3; completely full frame, extended canvas top and bottom; adjusted color balance slightly to warm it up; and dodged the head and neck just slightly (about 0.14 EV) because it was partially in shadow. I did lighten the iris a bit too and sharpened the bird overall just a little.

Thanks for any observations and critiques, which are always welcome.

[Bill Dix]

Very nice look-back pose. Good and sharp from stem to stern -- the small aperture presumably helped there. I find the bird a little large in the frame -- perhaps a case where the 1.4X wasn't needed. I might remove the little blip in the water halfway up along the left edge.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Bill, much appreciated. I was wondering about that bubble too, and will take care of it. Agree that I didn't need the 1.4x. It seems I'm always either using too little or too much focal length. Maybe I need to invest in a telephoto zoom? Thank you again.

[Melissa Groo]

Nice portrait of this Little Blue, Dennis. I too find it a bit tight in the frame. Great look back at you, and super detail, sharpness and IQ.

[Arthur Morris]

You handled the less than ideal light angle well. The bird is too big in the frame for my tastes. The feathers look a bit over-sharpened, the base of the bill more so.

[Diane Miller]

I think this is a case where the amount of detail justifies the "tightness" of the frame in the context of an online post -- to allow the bird to be large enough that the detail can show.

To me it doesn't look oversharpened. With so much fine detail captured, rendering the JPEG may have caused some subtle sharpening artifacts. They are overpowered for me by a lovely image.

[Grace Scalzo]

Looks to me like this might be a good candidate to crop as a head shot. As is, looks stuffed in the frame and the light falling on his back draws my attention away from his face. But when I look at just the lovely face, I feel there's an image hiding in there.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Grace...I appreciate your suggestions.

I tried cropping to a head shot on another photo taken the same day (see here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/108077-Little-Blue-Heron-with-breakfast), but on that photo, it hurt the IQ too much in the collective opinions of the commenters. I might try that here because it would require a little bit less of a crop, but I might also try to extend canvas on left and right to loosen up the tight frame a bit. On the earlier photo, I was a bit surprised by the degradation in IQ on an approximately 75% crop of a 1D IV file. I thought this camera would do better than that. But maybe it's also my lack of post processing skill.

Not sure what to do next. I am learning new post processing techniques daily it seems, and I can see a distinct improvement in my photos in the last year. I have also gained much more of an appreciation of what makes a good photo, having learned from viewing other photos here and having my own critiqued. I am much more critical of my daily shoots than I was in the past. That's a good thing, I think.

Thanks again!

[Dennis Zaebst]

I tried to take everyone's comments into account. I extended canvas on all four sides to make the bird a little less crowded into the frame, and sharpened the body a little less than before. Let me know if this is an improvement.

Thanks again everyone!

[PhilCook]

I think the repost looks nicer, the slight canvas extensions have worked nicely, although myself i think a little more on the right would improve a little more. I would also now *** a slight contrast tweak as it now looks looks a little flat. I agree Dianes comments that it's nice to fill the frame when there is such nice detail , but the modification you made with the repost still retains the fine detail nicely

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks and much appreciated, Phil! Agree it looks a bit flat. I must have adjusted everything a bit too much. Will work on that.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Adjusted black point, clarity. Thanks!

[PhilCook]

Yep, improved on the flat look nicely now Dennis, lovely bird, nicely portrayed.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Phil. Very nice of you to reply so long after the original post. I truly appreciate your help. I forgot to add a little more space on the right as you suggested, but will take care of that. Thanks again.