I captured this image a couple of days ago at Circle B Bar Reserve. I tried to make the best of the light, when I moved along the trail to isolate the heron against a soft background the light was coming from the side. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1600 F/5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 560
Post processed in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped from horizontal to vertical for composition, cleaned up bird poop on perch, noise reduction to background
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 11-01-2014 at 10:02 AM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joseph, nice job of dealing with the harsh light. Good perch and a nice pose. Looks like Circle B Bar is producing some very nice opportunities for you lately!
Lovely colours and pose excellent shot. It just may be worthwhile playing with a large Unsharp Mask on the head and bill to increase contrast a little bit.
I like your composition and how the perch comes out at an angle from the corner of your frame. Good pose on the bird and nice BG. I would sharpen the bird's head a bit more. When you are focusing on a subject such as this heron, are you using single center point or all point? I am wondering b/c your point of focus seems to be on the bird's body rather than its head.
Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.
Marina, I will revisit the head/eye regarding sharpening. I have my camera set up for back button focusing set on continuous focus mode. I focus on the eye/head and then release the focus button locking the focus then recompose the image before triggering the shutter. Not sure why the back may look sharper than the head, will ponder what may be happening. Thank you for viewing, commenting and suggesting improvements.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Your technique sounds good to me. It's possible that when you are using this lens at 400mm, you might get better sharpness when you aren't wide open such as here at F5.6. If you have enough light, you may want to try F8 to see if it renders your images sharper when at 400mm. Just a thought/suggestion although it's possible this lens is sharp wide open at 400mm.
The technique sounds good if you are on a tripod, but if handheld even the ever so slightest back or forth movement by you can throw off the focus. That is why if the subject is cooperative I do switch the focus point to get it near the eye best I can.
Terrific perch and BG you got here, and the heron gave you a perfect head angle. You could try to tone down said perch and the bill a bit - that may give the effect of softening the hard light.
Thanks Daniel, you may have hit on what is happening. The shot was handheld, probably movement after focusing was achieved. Next time I will move the focus point and focus at the time of releasing the shutter. Thanks for viewing and commenting.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Green Heron
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