GBH in flight

[Cathy McEntee]

I took this recently just before sunset. Nikon D7000, 300mm 2.8 with 1.7 tc, ISO 640, f 6.3, 1/1250. Manual exp. HH from boat. PP minor adjustments LR4 and CS5. I was drawn to the dynamic pose of this bird and would appreciate your C&C. Thanks.

[Dennis Bishop]

The golden light and the aspect ratio of the image are wonderful. So is the out-of-focus background. And I agree about your capture of the heron. I thought it might be good to have additional canvas below and in front of the heron and to make the background a bit less distracting. I stretched the background until the eye was at the intersection of a vertical and horizontal divine proportion line. Then, I used a Hue/Saturation mask with increased saturation and lightness and applied a gradient mask to linearly reduce the effect from bottom to top.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Cathy,

This is actually an interesting shot the layers are unique and I found them different enough that is holds my eye. Its the head that bothers me the most it is too tight between the layers. The whites are hot and the picture is over saturated too IMO - need to turn the dial down a bit here.

Dennis did a nice job removing the head from the tight layers and providing more harmony in the frame. On balance an interesting composition but remember the eye needs to see balance in the frame and in the initial post it does not. You are closer than you think and if the background was controlled better it could have been a much stronger image. Work on the exposure techs too, always set them for the whites first and everything else will fall into place. Remember to check the histogram it tells the exposure story - keep em coming and thanks for sharing.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Thank you Cathy for posting this, and Dennis and Jeff for the critique. When I first saw it, I liked it but was bothered by "something". That something is what Dennis fixed and Jeff talked about. The opening up of the "head" area, makes a lot of difference and will help me be mindful of this when shooting.

[Randall Farhy]

Cathy, beautiful light and capture. In agreement with comments above-things happen fast with BiF, paying attention to the surroundings does help-however we are still at the mercy of where our subjects want to go and sometimes we have take what we get.

My only critique would be to use a wider aperture to get more subject/BG separation. Doing so will also give faster shutter speeds to work with. Keep up the good work!

[Cathy McEntee]

Thank you very much Dennis for the repost--it's definitely a great improvement. Also Jeff, I appreciate your critique and suggestions are well taken. Thanks Jeannean and Randall for your input as well!