Tri-colored heron

[gail bisson]

I took this a few seconds after sunset. The heron was in the shade and the Bg was black because of the shade and lack of light.
This is straight out of the camera. The BG and water are depicted as seen.
Nothing added or cloned. I should have cloned the little twig to the left of heron.
The heron is young so he still has alot of rust in the wings.
Almost FF.
ISO 3200 SS 1/250 F 5.6
Canon 1 DX
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice environmental portrait. I like the most of leaves but not the OOF one close to neck. On my screen I see a green color cast on the whites that is most likely reflection from the leaves. Shame we can’t see the feet

TFS

[dankearl]

I agree with Arash on the leaf, with your PP skills you could just remove it or tone it down.
My eye keeps going to the flower, I would mute it a bit also.
Bird looks terrific.

[Bill Dix]

What a gorgeous image of a young tri-color. He stands out beautifully against the dark bg. Yes you could do a bit of cloning and clean up the image, but it's nice to see one that is this beautiful without any manipulations. The green cast on the lower white feathers is natural and should remain.

[annmpacheco]

So very nice to see this young heron hunting in such a pretty habitat. Excellent exposure and composition. The shadowed BG really sets the stage for the "drama" . I quite like the lily pads as is, natural, and the heron's balancing act of standing on the pads while waiting for a fish takes some skill and its okay woith me that the feet are under water. Lastly,
I also like the flower as it draws my eye diagonally along the same direction as the heron's eye. Lovely fresh feather colors makes this image a beauty.

[gail bisson]

I did a "sanitized " version of this image removing some of that larger leaf and removing the little twig.
It does look better but it's weird- I am more and more reluctant these days to clone out big elements like the leaf. I am still fine with little tweaks like removing an extra catchlight or a poorly located specular highlight but my days of extensive cloning are long gone! Maybe I am just being lazy!:t3
If I have to clone too much I end up deleting the shot.
Gail

[John Mack]

Pretty nice. Like the lily pads and the dark background. The details on the bird look nice.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the curves of the neck, dark BG, HA and the repost looks good to me. Nice image Gail.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The repost looks better, but like you I am a rather lazy processor (but not "maybe"...I am!!) and avoid large removal of objects (but have no qualms removing other smaller bits). Nothing wrong with the hidden feet with the heron standing in water.