Great Blue Heron

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida on the same afternoon as my previously posted images of a Anhinga with a catfish. I saw this heron take off out of the corner of my eye, found it in the viewfinder and captured three images. Two of the images had parts of the bird clipped in the frame, this image the bill was about 1mm inside the frame with the top and right side as shown. I added canvas on the left side and bottom for composition. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 400mm
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +2/3 ISO 720 AWB HH
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Canvas added on the left and bottom for composition

[Bill Dix]

Hi Joe. Good quick reactions to capture this nice flight shot. I love the open beak. You might consider a touch more sharpening on the head.

[John Mack]

Sounds like you made out quite well with your fast thinking. Like the composition here and the open bill.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice image design and capture but the bird and details look a bit muddy ...

with love, artie

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice image design and capture but the bird and details look a bit muddy ...

with love, artie

Hey Artie, here is a edit using the Dehaze Tool in Lightroom. I have trouble understanding muddy, when I look at I think lacking contrast. Reading your blog it seems you shoulder is healing, praying it continues.

[Arthur Morris]

Looks a bit better. By muddy I mean that the colors, especially on the face and neck, look a bit blocked up. If you like, shoot a link to the NEF file to my samandmayasgrandpa@att.net address using a large file sender :)

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for sending the DNG file. I think that you got in trouble with the RAW conversion by not going bright enough. Did you get the ACR screen capture that I sent via e-mail? I actually upped the exposure a bit from what I sent you. I did not expand the canvas as much as you did. But with the repost here the muddy look is gone ... LMKWYT.

with love, artie

ps: I did lots more after the RAW conversion including NIK 40/40 on the bird only, some Eye Doctor work, and Neat Image NR on the bird alone followed by more on the background ...

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks for sending the DNG file. I think that you got in trouble with the RAW conversion by not going bright enough. Did you get the ACR screen capture that I sent via e-mail? I actually upped the exposure a bit from what I sent you. I did not expand the canvas as much as you did. But with the repost here the muddy look is gone ... LMKWYT.

with love, artie

ps: I did lots more after the RAW conversion including NIK 40/40 on the bird only, some Eye Doctor work, and Neat Image NR on the bird alone followed by more on the background ...

Hi Artie, yes I did get the camera raw screen shot you sent. Comparing your Camera Raw settings to mine as you said I did not go bright enough. Thank you for helping and showing me how the image should look, very much appreciated. Your image looks great.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Artie, here is an edit trying to match the look of yours.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, here is an edit trying to match the look of yours.

Much better Joe and YAW. There are some serious mis-matches in the wave patterns below the bird ...Note the Eye Doctor Work in my repost

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, yes I did get the camera raw screen shot you sent. Comparing your Camera Raw settings to mine as you said I did not go bright enough. Thank you for helping and showing me how the image should look, very much appreciated. Your image looks great.

You are welcome. Thanks for your kind comments. I cover making ACR RAW conversions in Digital Basics II, the Current Workflow e-Guide (http://birdsasart-shop.com/the-birds-as-art-current-workflow-e-guide-digital-basics-ii/). One change that I made there is that I now start with the WHITE slider, move it to the right while holding the ALT key, and back off a bit, and check the RGB values for the WHITEs usually aiming for the low to mid-240s.

with love, artei

[Joseph Przybyla]

Much better Joe and YAW. There are some serious mis-matches in the wave patterns below the bird ...Note the Eye Doctor Work in my repost

with love, artie

Hi Artie, I see what you did on the eye. I will work on that and will fix the wave patterns I missed in he haste to post the image. Much appreciated.