Black-crowned Night-Heron

[WillieHall]

Was reviewing some images from this fall for my own personal critique and decided to put this one out to see what I could learn. I fly fish in a boat and always have my camera. It seems, at times, I can approach birds very close if I go slow. This one modeled for me for several minutes in the early morning fall light. It is a Jpeg shot with AP @ 1/2500, f/9.0 ISO 400 and 400mm w/ Canon 7D and 100-400 L lens. Cropped about 50% with little post processing. I am sometimes concerned about depth of field, therefore tried f/9 on this larger bird.....not needed? how to decide correct f stop for sharpness, disregarding backgound issues and available light. I did shoot my first RAW images today and will post in the next couple days....lots to learn there!

[Randall Farhy]

Willie- this is a really nice capture. I really like the colors you brought forth with the available light and PP. It looks sharp in the right places given the amount of cropping. The open bill is a plus. Small, fine feather detail is difficult to bring out on these birds especially on crops above 40%. I gave up on DoF

concerns when shooting with my 400 F5.6 as available light and SS take precedent (for me) in trying to capture a sharp image. While I'm not sure of the visible effect, it is posted that the 7D sensor starts losing critical sharpness above F6.3. Stopping the lens down 1/2-1 stop from wide

open should help with overall sharpness, but beyond that I think you will give up too much in shutter speed or ISO to realize a benefit. For the picture, is there more room to the bottom? My eye wants to see a bit more for the bird to stand on as the legs lead the viewer right to the edge.

I would remove the 2 OOF green sticks and crop (or add canvass) for more space on the right. Regards-Randall

[David Kenny]

Willie - Since you cropped about 50% I think if you shot at a smaller f Stop ( 5.6) you would of been ok on this one. But i am still learning as well. If I have cooperative subject (Which is very rare) like you did I try to shoot at a few different apertures to compare the effect on subject and background. Over all it looks like you have a nice photo here but I agree with Randall about including a little more under the birds feet.

[WillieHall]

thanks for the suggestions. The bird was sitting on a wall and I included a little and removed the subtle distracting elements that I had not noticed....looks better, but having trouble posting it, so take my word....thanks again David and Randall.

[Diane Miller]

The eyes and beak look sharp, the breast feathers have the look of noise reduction. God point Randal made about keeping the ISO low, although it's such a tightrope walk with aperture and SS. I think experience and instinct are the best guides. With a small subject a little distance away, wide open should be fine, or half a stop down if it makes the lens sharper. If you are close to a smaller subject, like the chickadee posted just below your post, you would want more DOF if you can afford it.

I do think you would be better to include more of the perch, even if it isn't pretty. It seems awkward to be cut where it is. I'd clone out the OOF branch/grass on the right. The one on the left is optional, to me -- it fits a little better with the other objects.

The tiny piece of grass intruding from the left should be removed.

Best of luck with RAW processing -- be sure to tell us what software you used and what settings for each image. These days the camera stuff is only half the story.

[Iain Barker]

Hi Willie

This is nice and it sounds like you are getting some good opportunities to get images.
I agree with the comments above and my main critique would be the crop at the bottom. I would definitely have included some of the perch as I think it would be preferable to clipping the bottom of the bird off.

Keep the images coming this is a great place to learn.

Iain

[WillieHall]

Here are the adjustments I made from constructive comments I received. I thought the wall it was standing on was ugly, but with your comments, I see it needed a "floor", since it was obviously standing on something! I also removed the small, distracting elements and this will teach me to look closer. It seems from Art's tutorials and many of your comments, improving photos is learning to see! Thanks much.....Willie

[Diane Miller]

Yes, better this way! A non-ideal perch is more ideal than something missing that the eye wants to find. And a good job removing the distractions.

Something has happened to the image quality here, though. No problem just for a repost to show what you did, though.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Yikes! What happened with the RP? Agree, more of the perch is better, but think we could do with just a teeny bit less? .... maybe it's me.... but does anyone else feel that his missing left leg is a problem? ...especially with the transecting branch? On the OP, I don't mind most of the distractions.... other than the one that points to his (ahem) behind.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi WIllie, The repost is better but still to yellow and it needs a lot more sharpening. As I think that Diane mentioned above, much better to include a good part of a bad perch than to clip the toes in attempt to hide it!