Great Blue Heron

[Eric Freeman]

Here's a shot I took the other day. Processing was pretty standard (NR, sharpening, levels and curves), and I added a little extra blur to the OOF areas. C&C always welcome.

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L lens
1/320 second, f/5.6, ISO 400

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8526/8579557253_1b1b686183_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scubadude1960/8579557253/)
Great Blue Heron, 11x14 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scubadude1960/8579557253/) by ScubaDude1960 (http://www.flickr.com/people/scubadude1960/), on Flickr

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Eric,

I love the background greens and natural colors, very nice,.. but the bottom perch is a bit too distracting. Consider taking a layer off the bottom at least 1/2 inch IMO,..use a piece of notebook paper over the screen and find the best look,..then crop accordingly. You have hot pixels in the crown too, bump-up the shutter,...need more speed here. Check out the histogram, especially the right side it has clipped some data and that is lost detail. What was the time of day - always shoot, check, adjust and shoot again and remember to set your exposure for the whites/brights first. In this case look at the white feathers on the head,..that is the zone you must get right everything else will fall into place. The image is a bit soft too probably due to shutter speed.

Curious, did you brace on a tree or what carry a tripod. The image has a good feel and the colors are very nice and your subject placement is good,..nice moment with nature,..keep em coming and thanks for posting.

[Eric Freeman]

Hey Jeff,

Thanx for the comments. I always appreciate them. I may try to clone out the small branch sticking out towards the camera on the bottom-left, which I find distracting. The tree itself, to me, adds more details to look at, tho I might crop it up to just below the bottom of the U-shaped section that the bird is standing on. The blown-out white area on the face isn't clipped in the original RAW file, but there was no detail... not sure what caused that; I tried the "shadows/highlights" adjustment in PS, ran it thru Photomatix details enhancer, nothing worked. In post, I adjusted levels to maximize the dynamic range, which gave the area some totally saturated pixels. I took the shot at 7:49 am, and I used a monopod to steady the camera. Pixel-peeping shows a slight bit of lateral movement. Luckily, there are dozens (hundreds?) of GBHs in the area and many have adapted well to being around humans, so there's always another day (I'll be back out this morning when the sun comes up).

[Jeannean Ryman]

Nice photo Eric, and agree with Jeff's analysis as well. Good luck with your outing! I'll look forward to the next installment. :)

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Eric,

Thanks for the feedback, interesting about the lose of detail.? Just be thinking about the white areas when setting the exposure, otherwise well done. As you know, shooting 400MM takes skill, steady hands and shutter speed,..lots of magnification and detail!

Go back and get em again,..look forward to seeing more.