white breasted waterhen

[Loong-Tat Wong]

Hi
This waterhen was shot in the fading evening light while she was gathering food for her chicks.
Image details:Canon 40d 600mm f4 TC 1.4 manual exp ISO 400 f5.6 1/640 manual flash 1/32 tripod
Would appreciate your comments and suggestions.Thanks.

Cheers,
Loong Wong

[Lance Peters]

Hi - A big warm welcome to the BPN Family - Nice first post.

Like the pose and the direct down the barrel eye contact - the low shooting angle is good and the colours and details are spot on.
Main issue here is the direction of the light - with one half of he bird in sunlight and the other in shadow - some of the whites on the head area are looking a tad hot - best results will be from lining the sun up at your back with your shadow pointing at the subject - rules are made to be broken of course. The flash did help here some - a bit more flash was probably called for to fill in the shadows a tad more. Also on my screen looks a tad dark - underexposed a little with the histogram well to the left of centre.

Looking forward to seeing more :)

[christopher galeski]

I like this loongwong,I like it as it is,the dark and light side,and the eye love it,and the raised foot,and dark BG.thanks.

[Harold Davis]

you sure got a great pose and a nice looking bird. fully agree with lance's critique. light angle the biggest issue. i hope to see more of this bird from you. keep them coming!!

[Gus Cobos]

A big warm welcome to the BPN family Mr. Wong,
I like your first capture...there is a lighting issue here in the sense that its not illuminating the entire subject, Like Mr. Peters stated, half of the bird is dark and the other half is light. You need to be aware of the light and track it accordingly. I like the color rendition and direct eye contact...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[BillTyler]

I disagree with some of the other posters that the light angle is an issue. The side lighting brings out texture in the chest area that would not otherwise be as visible, as well as bringing out the shapes of the feet with the bright edges there. It also sets the mood/time of day as evening, which a more uniform lighting would not have done.

Bill

[Ray Rozema]

Like the pose and angle. But I agree with others regarding the light angle and exposure level.
welcome to BPN a great place to learn.:)

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome !!!!!!

Bill has a point regarding the light and sometimes compelling images are made side and backlit !!! With these type you do (generally) have to help them out with flash and the 1/32 was like having the flash off !!!!! .. just check full flash at 1/640 sec for reach !!!

Did real good with exposure setting, mood and fell !!! Looking forward to many more !!!!

[Ron Boisvert]

Welcome to BPN, Loong!! This is a great first post. I really like the direct look you captured, as well as the composition and background. It's nice and sharp as well, with all that magnification and relatively slow shutter speed. IMHO, for the side lighting to work better, your fill flash should have lightened up the shadow side significantly more than it has. Otherwise, I really like the feel of the image. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work!

[Loong-Tat Wong]

Hi folks,
Thank you very much for the advice and especially for the warm welcome.
I was very concerned about blowing the whites in this bird and hence opted for a EV of -0.67 and low flash output.I should have realised that would and it did put half of the bird in the shadows.
Anyway it was a good learning opportunity and I hope to learn more from BPN.
Thanks again!

Cheers,
Loong

[Bob Miller]

I agree with all the technical stuff but i still liked this image alot when I first saw it. As is ....It has a great mood with the darkness and the foot reaching forward. And Welcome to BPN !