Ironhead Portrait (Wood Stork)

[Bill Foxworthy]

Canon 40D, 100-400L @ 190mm
1/125. f/5.0, ISO 400
Spot Metering, 7:45am, 2-12-08
Looks like a young one to me.
C&C welcome :)

[Blake Shadle]

Nice work, Bill! Great details throughout and eye contact from your subject. There a couple things that I might do to improve this image. First, I would crop some off the left to get rid of the black feathers against the left side of the frame. I'd also add a little canvas to the top of the frame. Maybe increase the contrast while you're in there ;) Well done.

Edit: I went ahead and made the changes that I suggested and attached a revised version below. Let me know what you think. (There's a bit of a noticable sharpening halo around the bill)

[Bill Foxworthy]

Thanks Blake. I though about cropping tighter on the left. I used shadow/highlight twice on this image and probable went a little far. These heads always come out dark for some reason. I also did manage to do a extra canvass addition today again so I can do that also. Thanks for taking time to comment!1 :)

[Fabs Forns]

Very nicely done, Bill, lots of detail. I love the soft light and diagonal bill that makes a strong compo line. A little more room at the top will make even better.
I'm not a fan of high contrast, so it's good for me as presented.

Nice work!

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

I really like this image Bill and your exposure and detail as well as lovely lighting makes this image special. Excellent capture and thanks for sharing .

[Jim Poor]

This is outstanding! I really like the patterns in the bill, Bill.

If S / H is producing halos, you can reduce the radius to 0 and eliminate most of the problem unless you go way far with the adjustment.

The other option is to select and contract the selection away from the edges. Two paths to a similar summit.

[Grady Weed]

High contrast or not, this is excellent. It is hard to make a stork look good. And you did it. I love wood storks by the way. Post more if you have them. Revised one is better.

[Bill Foxworthy]

Thanks Blake for the re-work. It does look better. Are you saying mine has a halo or yours does or both? I sometimes use smart sharpen and other times USM. I used arties suggestion for my S/H settings and it didnt seem to work for me so I just left them at default and that seem to do better. Not a big fan of S/H but seems like alot use it here?
Thank you Fabs, Judy, Jim and Grady for the comments. That keeps me on my toes and they are appreciated. :)

[Blake Shadle]

Hi, Bill! You're welcome. When I mentioned the sharpening halo, I meant it was noticable in both (I actually made it worse by adding a touch of USM). I really like smart sharpen to reduce the time I spend working on an image. Before smart sharpen (to be certain to avoid a halo) I would select my subject and use USM on my subject only.

[Fabs Forns]

Bill, for homogeneous backgrounds as this one, select the background with the magic wand. Invert the selection. Select>Modify>Contract by one pixel, the sharpen as desired. No halos because you are working inside of the edge.