Nest Building Venice Rookery FL - Great Blue Heron

[Jon Sostarich]

Canon 500mm f4/L + 1.4X II TC, EOS 1Ds Mark II, Evaluative Metering (Av) -1/3 stop, 1/4000sec at f8, Center Sensor Only AI Servo Autofocus, Gitzo Tripod with Wimberley Head II


Things done to the image. Cropped image on left edge and added the same amount of canvas to the right edge. Added ½ inch of canvas to top edge. Put blue sky in areas were I added canvas.
I would like some input about the tree branches at the lower right. Should I keep them or remove them form the photo? Do the branches help by giving the Heron a place to land?

My second question is on posting for the web. I use a colored managed workflow with Adobe RGB 1998 as my color space. When I do a save for the Web in Photoshop I am getting color shifts in my images (going to a non color managed web browser). I do not see a large color shift when I convert from Adobe 1998 to sRGB color space in Photoshop. Is there a post that describes how to soft proof and manage the color shifts when doing a “Save for the Web” in Photoshop.

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely done. Sharp, good head angle, and I like the shadow on the wing. Overall, the bird is way too tight in the frame. It needs more room everywhere... Easy to add canvas but then you will have to get rid of the leaves in the lrc. Sometimes I simply do a Gaussian blur on the leaves. I will leave the color space questions to those more knowledgeable than I.

later and love, artie

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great pose, light and shadow. It is too tight in the frame for me and the piece of stick above his eye is a bit distracting. Did you replace the eye? It looks as if the stick was in front of the eye. I would leave the leaves as it adds perspective.

[Jon Sostarich]

The birds eye and stick have not been modified in Photoshop. I will try to add more canvas and repost the image.

[Jon Sostarich]

Repost with more canvas added.

[Linda Robbins]

The light was a bit harsh, but the shadow of the birds head and crest on the far wing adds interest. Your repose looks better, but with so few leaves remaining in the corner, I think I would probably get rid of them.

Instructions for soft-proofing can be found in the upper bar of Photoshop under HELP.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The reposted crop looks better and I agree that the few leaves could go. There is a sharpening halo. You can check Fabs' tutorial in the educational resources section on how to avoid them.