Green heron stalking

[Peter Coskun]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4526796061_748f328f2f_o.jpg

Finally had one cooperative green heron a few weeks back. I couldn't have wanted a better BG. I did clone out a branch that was towards the bottom of the image. Let me know what you think.

Canon eos 7d
Canon 400mm f/5.6L @f/7.1
1/1000th sec
iso 400
+1/3 EV

[Randy Stout]

Peter:

Indeed nice to get one in the open, with clean background. I like the bill paralleling the perch, sharp. The image feels a little tight on the sides to me, esp. to left.

The main thing that jumps out at me is the brightness of the perch and feet. I might do some subtle burning in of those areas, just to help keep our eye on the bird, and not being drawn to the bright perch.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Peter, the leaning/fishing posture following the perch works well. Good colours on the heron, and I agree with Randy that toning down part of the perch is needed. Killer BG.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Some small changes already mentioned would only improve an already fine image. The burning of the feet and branch would make this a very strong image.

[Andrew Merwin]

I agree with the above comments. I do like how the branch leads my eye to the heron's feet & then the feet lead my eye to the heron.

Andrew

[Daniel Cadieux]

Brightness of perch has already been mentioned, and is the main issue here. I also agree the comp is tight. Are those post-processing artefacts touching the bill tip and along bottom edge of perch? Good clean BG, and I like the concentration on this guy's face.

[Peter Coskun]

Thanks for the comments. The one thing I now noticed was that very bright area of the feet. I had done a slight brightness adjustment to tone it down. I tried doing a linear burn but was having trouble getting it just right. I'll have to go back and see if I can fix it.

Daniel-

I did some slight cloning towards the beak with some healing brush because some strange swirls showed up in the image. Before posting everything seemed to look ok, another thing I'll have to work on.