Omicron Heron

[Jim Keener]

Greetings,

While making a trip across the Southwest US in early October, I made a pilgrimage to Bosque del Apache, first going to the Boardwalk. As I was setting up my gear, the few Sandhill Cranes that were there flew off. But this Heron kept me entertained for some time, once flying about ten feet off my left shoulder.



Just after sunrise. The bird and light are beautiful to my eyes. My biggest concern are the spots on the background. I tried a few things to take them out, but continued to see faint smudges. Perhaps the spots are better left alone. Please let me know.

Shot with a Canon 1DX, 500mm f/4 w/ 1.4X TC. ISO 400, 1/2000, f/5.6. Some retouching in Lightroom. Cropped for 1X1.

Thanks for the view. C&C welcome.

[Cambell Baxter]

I love the reflection. Awesome :) I know it might be a pain, but my one little comment would be concerning the floating debris in the water. Could some of it be removed to be less distracting but still show that the water is there?

[Mike Herdman]

I have to agree with the above post...very nice reflection but the spots/debris on the water are distracting and almost looks like a dirty sensor in need of a cleaning. One last thing I would like to have seen is...the bird coming towards me or more from the side to get a better view of it. But...sometimes we gotta take what we can get!

[Edward Arthur]

Reflection and symmetry are wonderful. I'd just clean up the fuzzy spots above the bird. Maybe try to fix the highlights/focus on the head and beak but that's no big deal for me given everything else. Very nice!

[Hazel Grant]

When I first saw the thumbnail, I thought,"This must belong in the OOTB forum, but then when I opened it, I saw this beautifully balanced reflection. Agree with cleaning up the spots.

[Hazel Grant]

I did a quick (10 minute) deletion of all the spots. Magic wand at 20 percent, delete, leaving only the bird. then on blank layer, fill with color of background. (may have missed a few spots since I was rushing through) You may not want to delete all the spots, but just a suggestion of a quick way to do it if you want to go that route. Love the bird!

[Jim Keener]

Hey, Hazel! Beautiful. I wish I'd done that. I'll work on this tomorrow. Thank you.

[Cambell Baxter]

I love the edit, Hazel :)

I think I would leave the marks below the reflection to give some sense of the water being there, is all :)

[Jim Keener]

I eliminated most of the brown spots, trying to leave enough in for verisimilitude. Looking back, the water was as still as could be.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful image and cleanup! I like the spots you have left.

The Spot Removal tool was created for things like this! It's magic!

[Iain Barker]

Really nice repost Jim. I love the symmetry.
Th head of the bird looks slightly hot and may benefit from being toned down slightly? It could just be my monitor though.

TFS
Iain

[Luis Patacao]

Wonderful image and cleanup! I like the spots you have left.

The Spot Removal tool was created for things like this! It's magic!

Fully agree on this, the remaining spots give a sense of division for me, very nice :)

[WillieHall]

nice clean up of the original post, I think you chose good elements to retain and emphasize the reflection