Blue Heron Portrait

[Peter Farrell]

From a natural hide after waiting about 20 minutes this Blue Heron finally turned and faced the right direction to allow me this shot. Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f8, 1/800, iso640, ev +0.7,
90% of FF. There is a lot of green growth in the water, I worked the BG a lot to tone down highlights and contrast, not too much done to the bird.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Peter - On my screen - the bird looks a little harsh - maybe due to ver sharpening?? The point of focus seems to be on the neck area - rather than the head/eye?? Well at least thats the area that appears to be sharpest.
Head might be angled sightly away - the eye looking forward like it is probably adds to the feeling that it is angled away - If the eye had of been looking at you are parallel to the sensor plane I think it would have improved it somewhat.
I might consider cropping some from the top (If not a little cleanup work required - PP artefacts??) think it would improve the composition.

[Julie Kenward]

Nice portrait, Peter. I also feel like the HA is just a slight bit past the focal plane but I do still feel engaged with the bird. I'm wondering if what Lance sees as oversharpening might just be wet feathers? If that's the case then I understand the effect - and the head certainly looks fine as is. If the feathers on the body are not wet then I'd pull back the sharpening as well.

I really like the "s" curve of the head/neck. Wouldn't mind seeing just a bit more room between that first curved area, though.