Night Heron

[Steen Torner]

I photographed this Night Heron in Hungary when visiting the great hides of Bence Mate during June.
Canon 1DX MKII and the Canon 500mm f/4L IS II USM on a tripod.
1/1600 sec. at f/5.6 and ISO 500.
The image was shot vertical and is only slightly cropped using the straighten tool in Photoshop Lightroom.
Your comments are much appreciated.

Regards Steen

[Arthur Morris]

Wonderful perspective as would be expected. You might wish to open up the shaded side of the face ... In a perfect world, the bird would have been staring right down the lens barrel.

with love, artie

[John Mack]

Great view of this night heron. Love the low angle. Great background and the details look good.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic perspective, and I love the grumpy look. Unfoprtunate you did not have fully frontal lighting as that would have lit up the other eye as well, but I still like the overall result. I'm feeling that the image seems a touch too yellow?

[Isaac Grant]

Have to love the expression on this bird. Nice perspective as well. As noted the sun was not at your back and caused some not too desirable shadows. Would be much better if that sun was behind your back. I agree with Daniel that the colors are off a bit and the shot has a yellow cast. Also sometimes you can be too close. I always find that I spend most of my efforts trying to get close but every once in a while I am too close and have to fight my instincts and tell myself to not get too close and make sure I can get the whole or at least most of the bird in the depth of field. You had plenty of light and shutter speed for an almost still heron. I think it would have been beneficial to shoot at f9 or even 11 to get more of the bird in focus. No problem with that camera and lens to shoot at a higher ISO.

[Steen Torner]

Thanks for all of your very helpful critique!
Unfortunately, I was stuck with my position in the hide and could not get the sun direct from behind as would have been preferred. Opening up the shaded side of the face has helped a bit.
I managed to remove the yellow cast just by reducing the WB temp.
In future, I will be more aware of increasing the depth of fields in this kind of images. Especially when the background is far away and still getting blurred with higher f-numbers.
And I actually had a similar image with the Night Heron staring right down the lens barrel … ; - )
Kind regards
Steen

[gail bisson]

I like your low POV and agree with all the above comments.
I do not mind the shadows as much as I miss seeing the legs within DOF.
An f stop of 9 or 10 could have easily been achieved here by bumping ISO up to 1250 or 1600 and decreasing SS.
Love the wayward head feathers blowing in the wind!
Gail

[Dorian Anderson]

The focus on the eyes, blowing plumes, and low angle are great, and but the OOF legs are tough. Would like to see him centered a bit better and the yellow cast removed.