In The Camouflage

[Bill Foxworthy]

I have been photographing these Little Blue Herons/or Reddish egret's with no success, Trying a different approach. Do you like this? Yes/No?
Canon 5D MKII, Canon 500 f/4L + 1.4 ext today 8:AM
1/1600, f/7.1, ISO400, -1.66 EV,
Cloned out some sticks right side, some white spots on bird also.

[David Thomasson]

I like the pose and the head turn. Image looks a little bit oversharpened to me.

I would use a mask to adjust curves/levels on the subject separately from the background.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5799/lbheron.gif

[Bill Foxworthy]

Thanks David for the Re-post. It does make a difference. That is what I have been doing also and to be honest that is what I do not like about these dark blue birds. It makes them look washed out. At least to me it does. If I am wrong about that please let me know. If it looks good to have the dark bird lightened then that is what I will do in the future. That is why I did the (-) compensation. I appreciate the 2 different look in an image. That is neat. :) Working hard to have them look good. It is Over-sharpened also. I used the blur tool to tone it down some.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

There seems to be a little noise in the BG, easy fix. Dave's example of before/after is great! Thanks Dave. Did you add canvas? See my repost with arrow. :)

I do like it overall.
Thanks for sharing Bill.

[David Thomasson]

Thanks Dave. Did you add canvas?

No, just adjusted curves.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

No, just adjusted curves.

Sorry, I meant that for Bill. :) I knew what you adjusted. Thanks David. :)

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Bill! My two cents: I have never been able to take a good picture of little blue herons under high contrast light(direct sunlight). You need soft light. I mean specifically low contrast light, or sunlight filtered by clouds(or smoke, mist, anything to scatter the light). High contrast creates serious problems, especially with dark birds, as I see you have discovered. The image here I would bet, was seriously underexposed. At least thats how I tried to handle the situation many times, to keep it from being washed out, and under-exposure seemed quite logical. However, when lightening up an underexposed image, regardless of the ISO, you will introduce noise. The higher the ISO you start with, the worse the noise. Here you introduced far more noise that would be expected at ISO400, which is really evident with the eye.
My advice, based on hundreds and hundreds of little blue images, is either wait for clouds, find one in the shade, or if you are lucky, shoot on a overcast day. Shade really doesn't work too well, not enough light generally, but still better than direct light.
When shooting under lower contrast light, overexposure (use your histogram) is the way to go, and keeping from blowing the whites is so much easier. . Don't worry when you look at image on your camera's LCD, it will look lousy. The histogram is what is important, and the peak will be on the right. Since you will be overexposing, even at ISOs up to 800, when you reduce the exposure post processing you will not introduce noise, and you will be surprised that image detail is still there! hope I've been helpful~Bill

[Kiran Poonacha]

Lovely one Bill.. nice details, all points covered above.. congrats..

[Bill Foxworthy]

I left a clone mark in Akos, and thanks William for all the info. I have taken hundreds of Little Blues also and never like any of them. That was the reason for underexposing to get a take on how you all thought. Appreciate it very much.
Thanks Kiran.

[Daniel Belasco]

Very nice pose and beautiful color.
However, as mentioned, way over sharpened to the point of looking unnatural. Try not to sharpen past the point where the bird doesn't look natural--no mattern what the software says to sharpen.

[Harshad Barve]

lovely bird and nice pose
all points are well covered & agreed
TFS