Green Heron

[Colin Gilyeat]

D7000@500mm, ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/125, 0EV, tripod
PP in LR4, adjusted levels, sharpened, and slight crop to about 98% of the original image. One, obvious problem I see is that the feet are at the bottom of the image, leaving no room to expand the canvas below the pearch. Plus I clipped the end of a toe off.

While I like the pose of the heron, I really wish there was something I could do to clean up the pearch area. I know that a less cluttered environment is preferred, but, it was pearched on the edges of the bush, leaving a lot of brances and twigs.

Are there any thoughts on what can potentialt be cloned out without major surgery on the image?

Thanks,
Colin

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Colin,

Greetings. I'm afraid major surgery would be needed to clean up the background. In addition to the clutter the bg seems a bit bright. 1/125 is just too slow for birds, IMO, I think there is motion blur in the head and body, it doesn't take much at 1/125 to lose detail. Nice to get at greenie.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Ian Cassell]

Colin, I would agree with Michael on this one. One way to have increased your SS on this would have been to increase your ISO to 400. In fact, I rarely use a lower ISO than 400 when shooting wildlife (most current bodies handle it quite well).

[Colin Gilyeat]

Michael and Ian, Thanks for taking time to comment. I completely agree about the background. I really hesitated to even post this one because the backgrond is so cluttered, but I wanted to get a feel for the exposure and pose of the greenie. I agree with the ISO needing to be higher. This one was taken well before I started posting here, and the one thing I have already started to do is make sure I have the ISO up enough to keep the shutter speed higher.

Colin

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Colin. I don't see a problem with ISO 200 if you can get by with it, as long as you can maintain appropriate SS and aperture. I've photographed many Green Herons, and they will often remain completely motionless, so a tripod assisted 1/125 sec is workable (but not for any sort of action!).Thats not the problem here. The problem is underexposure.

The main goal is to get the subject properly exposed, and worry about the background later, and this generally means spot metering IMO. Trying to correct an underexposed image in post-processing is often accompanied by excessive noise and other problems, and a reason why I consider it is one of the two main things to avoid with digital captures. The other is too slow a shutter-speed (blurry images). regards~Bill

[Colin Gilyeat]

Bill, I went back and looked at the metadata and noticed that LR4 showed pattern as the metering mode, which I believe corresponds to the D7000 matrix metering setting. The histogram shows that as well. I usually use either center-weigted average or spot, not sure why I had the metering set to matrix. I have replaced the alumimun tripod that I was using the with a carbon fiber one which should also help in minimizing vibration induced movement, especially at slower shutter speeds.

Thanks for you insights,
Colin

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Colin, I agree about the major issues of background and exposure. Even the exposure would have been decent if the image had a dark, uncluttered background. The problem I have with spot metering is finding the perfect 13% gray "spot" to meter on. The bird is exposed pretty decently, but the background is brighter, so guess who wins... The eye follows light.