Just a heron

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hello everybody!

It's been some time since I don't participate. Sorry for that, I have been very busy.

Today I want to share with you an image of a very common bird for you guys in the US.
I was ready for the arrival of a toucan to this thick perch, which is part of a tree but at the same time I was using as a perch for a set up, when out of the nowhere this green heron dicided to eat some of the bananas that I had for the toucans...! well, I've been in the fiedls for some time now but I have never observed a heron interested in bananas! any ways, that's why you see some bromeliads in the perch, they grow there naturally and is not so common to find them in the ground, near the habitat of a green heron so my explanation is here is to make it more clear.

Canon 5D
Canon 300mm + TC 1.4
AV
ISO 500
I/200sec.
f/6.3
0 Exp. comp
Hand held (I hate to shoot this way but there was no other chance since the bird was moving fast and I wasn't ready;))
Fill flash
Almost full frame, I had to crop a tad because there was more room in the back that I had wished. :(
PS CS 5

[Colin Driscoll]

A nice surprise and thanks for the explanation. The bird is a little dark and I found that a dose of Shadows & Highlights will bring out those lovely heron feathers and colors nicely without spoiling that good BG. Maybe try and repost?

[Greg Basco]

Hola, JuanCa. Ok, you are the first guy in Costa Rica to get a green heron to come to a banana feeder! I think you did as well as you could with this image but I think the placement with the feeder/perch in shade relative to what looks like a sunlit background put you behind the eight ball from the start. For this situation, I really would have considered opening up your composition even a bit more (maybe w/o the TC) and going for a high-key look. The bromeliads are really cool so you might have ended with something really artistic.

I know that all of these suggestions simply may not have been a possibility for you so, in the end, good job with the fill-flash to handle the situation you were given.

So, did you get any of the toucans?

Cheers,
Greg

PS -- Let's talk one of these days if you're around.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I'm in agreement with Greg. The green heron is seriously underexposed, and there is no post-processing solution; lightening it will induce a great deal of noise and no more detail. In this case, and actually most other cases, proper exposure of the subject is imperative (underexposure to be avoided at all costs and slight overexposure advantageous). Deal with the background later if necessary. In this scenario the background would be blown, and high-key would result, which I might add I like alot.
What I don't understand is the contribution of the flash. Theoretically, if the light had been intense enough, it could have been essentially the main light source, and not fill-flash. If it had overexposed the subject somewhat, and not contributed to lightening up the background, dropping the exposure of the entire image could have created a properly exposed subject/background. There is a downside the using a flash as a main light source for avian subjects, in my opinion, and it is that it can look "flashed" and un-natural. regards~Bill

[Daniel Cadieux]

Was the toucan fishing?:p

Yes this was a tricky situation here. I'm sure you weren't prepared for this surprise, but I agree with Greg's suggestions regarding perch placement in regards to shade/sunlit BG. Good walking pose, and I like the intimate view with the eye-level perspective.

[Greg Basco]

Juan Carlos, just to follow up, I think Bill gave some good suggestions too. As he pointed out, the downside of the other option -- to expose the background to be a nice green middle tone and then have most of the light on the bird come from flash -- is that it will indeed look flashed. This is a problem I see with lots of rainforest images. There's a difference between quality and quantity of light from flash.

Now, if you could get your flash off-camera at a setup, then that's a whole different story. But that, of course, is not always possible so the best strategy is to try if at all possible to make your setup so that background and subject are in same light or that background is in shade relative to the subject.

Cheers,
Greg

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Thanks to all for your kind words and advise to improve, I take your suggestions very seriously because I want to improve.
I believe I can give this image a try and see how it looks if I try to make a high key, thogh that is not my favorite type of image, may be because I am used to see the rich greens of the cloud and rain forests! but I like to try new things and could get a desent result at the end, who knows.

Hey Greg, I made this image in Guapiles, at a friends back yard but the light was harsh, the perches not so interesting and forget about the background, I really did what I could but at the end was a bit frustrated. Even three species of toucans and a bunch of colorful tanagers and other birds did not make my day. I guess I will have to keep on looking for more suitable places where I can set up a few branches and bananas.:cool:

[Ben_Sadd]

Juan,

I do not have much to add to what the others said, but just wanted to make a comment with regard to William and Colin's posts. To me the heron looks well exposed and not at all dark, while the background is too light/overexposed. I checked on both of my calibrated Mac monitors and saw the same thing. Perhaps a mac-pc difference :)

What did you do you pp on?

I like the banana heron story!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Juan,

I do not have much to add to what the others said, but just wanted to make a comment with regard to William and Colin's posts. To me the heron looks well exposed and not at all dark, while the background is too light/overexposed. I checked on both of my calibrated Mac monitors and saw the same thing. Perhaps a mac-pc difference :)

What did you do you pp on?

I like the banana heron story!
Hi Ben and thanks for you comment.

I also do not see the bird too dark, but I do agree that the BG is a bit over exposed.
I use PS CS5 and a PC.

I'm glad you liked the banana story! I phone my friend this morning and he said that this same heron is coming back to the feeder every time it is clear of toucans!

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Interesting comments about whether the image is too dark, and since I shoot green herons very often I though maybe I had a preconcieved idea of proper exposure, and the overly light background made it seem darker than it really was. Examined the histogram, and the "white" plummage hovered around 200, where closer to 250 "proper" IMO. The dark plummage 20-40 average. These measurements are independant of the monitor. The biggest problem, and suggesting the image was actually darker and lightened in PP, is a lack of feather detail, especially the russet colored plummage. regards~Bill

[Ben_Sadd]

Bill,

Good idea to look at the values. Yes, even the seemingly bright white on the wing is at 215-220. Looking at it in PS and playing with the exposure a little, I do now agree about it being a little dark. However, I would only say about 1/2-2/3 of a stop. If it hasn't been lightened already it is possible that those values could be used for conversion without too many ill-effects. I think it is hard to tell too much from the jpeg.

Juan, how about a repost with some exposure compensation in conversion?

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Interesting comments about whether the image is too dark, and since I shoot green herons very often I though maybe I had a preconcieved idea of proper exposure, and the overly light background made it seem darker than it really was. Examined the histogram, and the "white" plummage hovered around 200, where closer to 250 "proper" IMO. The dark plummage 20-40 average. These measurements are independant of the monitor. The biggest problem, and suggesting the image was actually darker and lightened in PP, is a lack of feather detail, especially the russet colored plummage. regards~Bill
Interesting indeed Bill!

But I will tell you that in fact, this image is not under exposed in the original, actully is over exposed, I had to move the exposure slider way to the left in order to get a darker bird, now, something that comes to my mind is that, probably our green herons in CR are darker than yours in the US, I've never been to the US so I don't know if this makes any sense.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Bill,

Good idea to look at the values. Yes, even the seemingly bright white on the wing is at 215-220. Looking at it in PS and playing with the exposure a little, I do now agree about it being a little dark. However, I would only say about 1/2-2/3 of a stop. If it hasn't been lightened already it is possible that those values could be used for conversion without too many ill-effects. I think it is hard to tell too much from the jpeg.

Juan, how about a repost with some exposure compensation in conversion?
I'm working on it Ben!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

OK, new repost, please let me know if this is any better than the original post.

Same specs, but this time full frame.

[Greg Basco]

Juan Carlos, I would keep the original capture and just move the blacks slider a few points to give it a little pop. I've found that to a large extent you take what the situation gives you and make the best image you can given the situation (e.g., in this case go all the way high key) rather than trying to make a traditional exposure out of a situation that just doesn't merit it. It's a great way to be creative and not keep yourself boxed into thinking that you want every image to look the same. Make sense?

Cheers,
Greg

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Yes Greg, it makes sense, I'll give a try and see what happens. Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

[John Guastella]

Perhaps I'm missing something here Juan Carlos, but based on your screen shot of the RAW file in ACR, the bird was properly exposed in the original image, but the BG was overexposed. In attempting to bring the BG back, you darkened the entire image which caused the bird to be underexposed (quite a bit, based on how it looks on my monitor). Your repost is not an improvement. Instead of adjusting the Exposure slider in ACR to salvage the BG, perhaps you can try taking the Recovery slider to the right (even all the way to the right). Alternatively, leave the exposure as is in ACR, bring the file into PS and burn the BG in (various methods available to do this).

John

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Juan; I don't think the Greenies are darker there; they are dark birds. I'm glad to see the original and it was exposed properly. I'm a firm believer in "exposing to the right" , and correcting in post-processing, and slight overexposure, which you have here, is a big advantage. As John has pointed out, you darkened the entire image, even with the repost, and caused it to appear underexposed. He also made good PP suggestions, and as Greg pointed out the scene had "high-key" written all over it.
Now back to why there is a problem with detail, which I might be the only one to notice. It could be I'm jaded by taking too many green heron pictures. Since it is not because the image was underexposed, I would guess that either the shutter-speed was too low, there was insufficient DOF, or focusing error. From my own experience I would certainly have used a higher shutter-speed, and I initially thought too slow a shutter-speed here would have been the culprit, but the birds left foot is in good focus, and further back is not. In any case a higher Fstop would have helped.
By the way, I realize you were shooting from the hip, so to speak, and you did well with composition and as it turns out exposure as well!
regards~Bill

[Daniel Cadieux]

Juan, In your original RAW file the bird looks very nicely exposed and only needs a bit more contrast and vibrance. You could also just tone down the BG white a bit and I'd be OK with that...

[Humberto Ramos]

The composition is great, but I would try to recovers some highlights, the BG is overexposed.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Amigo, this is truly remarkable! Well done indeed for thinking quick and shooting when the opportunity arose. A fine image overall if we ignore the light BG, which would be best to be of a darker tone. What you could do is select the BG alone and apply some careful darkening. Are you able to do that my friend? It would look great with the exposure close to the original of the RAW file on the bird and a darker BG. that's what I am thinking.

Well done mate! :)

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Amigo, this is truly remarkable! Well done indeed for thinking quick and shooting when the opportunity arose. A fine image overall if we ignore the light BG, which would be best to be of a darker tone. What you could do is select the BG alone and apply some careful darkening. Are you able to do that my friend? It would look great with the exposure close to the original of the RAW file on the bird and a darker BG. that's what I am thinking.

Well done mate! :)
Hello dear Akos!

It is quite interesting to note that a few photographers/collegues like the idea of keeping the original exposure, I mean I find it too washed-out...! yes, may be the idea is just to pump the contrast a tad. I agree with your suggestion about darkening the BG. Or may be I just have to keep on trying! but thanks a ton for your input and advise, it's much appreciated.