Orange Squacco Heron

[Conrad Bester]

I took this picture about a month back just after sunrise. This heron flew right past the sun on the horison. I changed the RAW image's temperature to 10 000K in DPP. Hand held with the 7D and Tamron 150-600 at 600mm. 1/5000, f/8, ISO400 in AV mode. No crop.

I was very excited when I took the image, please let me know what you guys think.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I quite like it! I'd go a bit darker overall, though, as it would enhance the mood. There's also some grain creeping in on the bird outline, perhaps you lightened it a bit in processing?

[Ian Wilson]

Hi Conrad, It is a difficult image for me as I am more of a bird nut than a photographer. I think Erasmus is on the right track suggesting you lower the overall brightness and I would experiment with levels adjustment on the bird only and see if exaggerating the orange contrast differences was useful. Lowering the brightness will also help with the graininess. Full marks for trying something a bit different. TFS. Ian

[arash_hazeghi]

I think this might have worked if it were a traditional silhouette (i.e. the bird completely dark and the sky with warm tones) as opposed to the bird washed out by the flare against a bright sky. you need to adjust your exposure for the sky to get the warm tones while letting the bird go completely dark and just have a sharp outline.

Good luck and TFS

[Conrad Bester]

Thanks for the comments. I will go back to the RAW image and process it again to see if I can make it look a bit better.