Great Blue Heron fishing in the waves

[Jon Pugmire]

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UQ3lWgcqp9A/U_wnhophqzI/AAAAAAAAVnQ/UzMPIb3SXS0/w1170-h780-no/heronFishing.jpg


Partly overcast morning at Edmonds Beach, Washington. 1/400 f/10 ISO 400. Handheld (sitting) Canon 50D with 70-200 2.8L IS USM II with 2x extender at 370mm. Av mode, +1 Exposure Compensation, Evaluative metering. Processed in Lightroom 4. Removed some of the debris immediately surrounding the subject and background. Added some Saturation and Vibrance. Brushed bird only with reduced Shadows and Highlights and exposure -.23. I realize that having the subject centered is not ideal, tried several crops, but I kept losing parts of the background or environment that I liked.

[Hazel Grant]

Nice pose catch. Eye caught well. Whites seem a bit blown on my monitor. Reflection adds to the look. I think you could have cropped it a bit, cropping some of the sky out and adjusting from there You certainly don't want to lose that center wave swirl.

[Jon Pugmire]

I'll double check the whites, I was pushing to the right and didn't get any blinkies. I don't believe LR reported them blown--but they do look that way, I can do some recovery work there. I liked the 3 waves in sequence, if I cropped from the bottom, I risk the reflection, and if I crop from the top, I lose the 3rd wave (There is no sky in the shot). Too much from the right, and the swirl gets too close to the edge. I'll post a crop losing the 3rd wave later (and seeing what I can do about the whites). Should have selected a different focus point and framed better. Thanks for the feedback.

[David Kenny]

Jon,

Since the GBH is smaller in the frame I feel if it was turned sideways more (parallel to the sensor) it would have had more of an impact in the frame. Do you have any other shots from this sequence with the bird sideways?


-Dave

[Jon Pugmire]

Yes, just not caught mid-wave, the bird brought the fish onto the beach for "post-processing". I was trying to capture the reflection on the front side of waves when he spotted the prey. I have several frames from prior to the catch, some more of the fishing action (head buried in the water), this was taken from the series bringing the catch to shore. I also have quite a few of the GBH figuring out how to swallow the prey. The flexibility in the neck is rather amazing, the catch was swallowed whole.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll see if there are any of the sideways ones that I like.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful find! For you both. Looks good to me but I'm on my iPhone today so can't tell about the whites. I think an alternate crop could be from the top and right. The third wave is not vital, for me.

It is amazing how the swallow those big fish. Processing -- I've got to remember that!

Would love to see. more from the sequence!

[Jon Pugmire]

Here's a crop from the top right, and a little off the bottom. Also helped the whites a bit, but recovering detail in the whites would likely mean a trip through Photoshop. Used Tone Curve to bring down only the whitest pixels, and touched up with the adjustment brush. I miss my 3rd wave, but it's better for the bird.https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nuqk1GKsyDE/U_1arHPoxmI/AAAAAAAAVoQ/bqsTLTiyHOw/w1170-h780-no/heronFishing-4.jpg

[Diane Miller]

You can make the whites gray in PS, or pull out some of the detail that may be there but not easily seen, with Nik Tonal Contrast. But to actually recover information means a trip back to the original raw conversion.

[Jon Pugmire]

I'm doing all my work in LR, so I'm working with the RAW files. I was able to tone them down a bit (I was not seeing any pure white prior anyway), but there's relatively little detail there. The bird was small in frame anyway, so there is not likely a lot of detail to pull out, which is what I meant originally. I don't have the NIK suite of products, but it's high on my list of wants. Personally I've found that sometimes whites look blown even when they are not (especially on screen), so I have to pull them down just a bit, which I did between the original post and the new crop. It's hard to tell here, but side by side there's a difference.

Thanks for the input.

[Jon Pugmire]

Here's a link to 10 in the series that show the chain of events. If I'm breaking protocol/rules by posting a link please let me know. (I'm new here.)

https://plus.google.com/photos/106632962540102254263/albums/6052486470852412881

Thanks again for everyone's feedback.

[Diane Miller]

Nice sequence! It's common to get colors (whites seem to be a common problem) that aren't blown but don't have detail.

I did a tutorial in Educational Resources with a few ideas.

[Jon Pugmire]

Nice sequence! It's common to get colors (whites seem to be a common problem) that aren't blown but don't have detail.

I did a tutorial in Educational Resources with a few ideas.

Thanks, I had read through that before when I was getting acquainted with the site, I'll do some more reading there. In this case, I probably should have been at 1/3 or 2/3 EV instead of 1, the light was changing, it was overcast, but not all the cloud cover was of the same density. I was in AV mode to help deal with the changing light and was exposing to the right. Most of these are 40-50% crops also, 400mm is my longest focal length (70-200 + 2X).

[Diane Miller]

Exposure is frustrating in changing light. Practice is the best teacher.

God sharpness and detail here for your equipment -- 400mm with your crop factor is 640mm full frame equivalent. Your biggest challenge with the 50D will be getting critical focus. Again -- practice, and careful evaluation of results at 100%.

Keep posting! You're off to a good start.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the tones in the water except for the foreground. The cropped repost is better but needs some off the bottom. Best tip: in similar situations use the right most AF sensor to get the bird out of the middle in the original capture :).

Does the bird have a baby halibut????

[Jon Pugmire]

I like the tones in the water except for the foreground. The cropped repost is better but needs some off the bottom. Best tip: in similar situations use the right most AF sensor to get the bird out of the middle in the original capture :).

Does the bird have a baby halibut????

Yes, I did move it around later while shooting. The bird was hunting moving right to left and back again. It was small in frame to begin with, so it didn't matter much as cropping was going to be necessary (and in my experience the 50D does better using the center point at distance). After the successful catch, it moved in towards shore and I should have switched to a different point. I'm still fairly new.

As nearly as I can tell, it's a Starry Flounder.

[Arthur Morris]

All good and thanks for the fish ID.