Great Blue Heron Landing with nesting matierial

[Dennis Zaebst]

This is one of a series of photos taken as a male GBH flew into the Venice Rookery with nesting material in January. In the past I probably would have cropped this one tightly around the bird. But from helpful comments received on this site, I decided to crop this one loosely. However, I wanted to maintain the 2x3 aspect.

Canon 50D, ISO 800, 300 mm f/4L IS, f/13 at 1/1000, no flash. PP in LR 4.2, clarity, slight sharpening with 50% masking , moderate NR. Slight crop on right and bottom.

C/C welcome as always.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dennis, leaving the foliage in was a good idea, as we have sense of where the heron is looking to perch. Placement in the frame works well, and good to see his nesting material. I would try and sharpen the heron a little more. Did you run NR on the whole image?

[Joe Senzatimore]

Great composition make this a fine image. Lots of room for the Heron to fly into and shows where it is landing and what it is doing. A fine story telling image. Just need to sharpen the Heron a bit , as already mentioned.

[Randy Stout]

Dennis:

Agree with Stuart and Joe. Sharpen him a bit more, and I might try a slight upward midtone curve adjustment to give it a bit more pop.

Cheers

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Dennis, crop is excellent. placement of subject is also nice.

image looks a bit soft..probably due to NR. I might start over again, not do any NR and check the resulting IQ. I think you could have opened up the aperture a bit more and shot this at a lower ISO.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks very much for the comments on the original. I have tried additional sharpening and brightened the midtones a bit. Is this closer? I suspect it will still look a tiny bit soft. Kaustubh, you are right that I should have shot this at a wider aperture and a lower ISO. I am going down to SW Florida this January, and will have my new (used) 1D Mark IV with me. Hopefully, with the education I am getting here, and with better equipment, I will be able to get sharper shots. Thank you everyone!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I also like the bird placement but now the sky looks washed out. The bird seems to be soft to my eye. I do like that the bird has a place to land and the nestling material on beak makes for a good image. Keep it up!

[Dennis Zaebst]

Well, this has certainly been a PP education. This time I applied sharpening and mid-tone correction only to the heron. I think this is better, and the bird should look sharper but at the expense of some noise. What do you think? (or should I just give up on this one?)