Backlit Yellow crowned night heron portrait

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

40D. 400f5.6L at f/6.3. iso 400. 1/200s. exp. comp 0. hand-held. almost full-frame...cropped for comp.

With so many dark areas, I did not want to push the ISO. Neither did I want to go wide-open as I was quite close to the bird. So I pushed my hand-holding limits...sharpness, admittedly, is not great.

All critiques welcome and appreciated.

[James Salywoda]

Very nice great head shot excellent detail and bg.

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Kaustubh,
This is a very cool headshot of a nice species. Great idea (the backlight effect) and good excecution. Would love to see this with a bit more contrast in the midtones to get a bit more seperation between the bird and BG and to emphasize the rim a bit more. TFS

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The backlight looks very good, eye contact, BG and sharpness work well, too.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Nicely done KD, loved the bird too.. The eye and the crown make this..

[Krijn Trimbos]

Hi Kaustubh, this is what I meant with my comment. I used an S-curve in the normal layer in PS to get a bit more pop in the bird and backlight effect.

Hope you like it,

Krijn

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Krijn, thx for taking the time. I see what you mean. I shall go back to the RAW file and play around. With such shots, half the battle is in processing and I am certainly a little weak there. Thx again.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice shot Kaustubh, did well with backlit. I would also sharpen the details more. TFS

[David Thomasson]

I think you found the right exposure, given the difficult lighting. Nice dramatic effect with the backlighting.

If you mask the bird carefully, you can bring out the feather details and also darken the background a little for a more dramatic effect.

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/5306/heron.gif

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/5382/heron.jpg

[Danny J Brown]

You caught the sprig nicely on this one and I like the orginal post as the repost bring the bird out more but are looking harsh to me. Well done, KD.

DB

[Mike Fuhr]

I agree Danny -- the repost shows more detail, but takes away from the rim lighting which I like about this shot.

[Stu Bowie]

Kaustubh, I like the backlighting through the feather detail on the neck, and what makes this for me is how part of the crest is curled perfectly into the air. Interesting repost from David.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx everyone for all the comments.

David, thx as always for taking the time. Although I see what you mean abt the details, I dont like the deer-in-headlight look. I had thought about using fill flash but decided not to do it because I thought that would look a little unnatural. Plus the bird might have flew away.