Goliath Lunch

[Andre Pretorius]

Goliath Heron with prey, Lake St Lucia, KZN, South Africa

Image captured from boat with camera on tripod.

Nikon D3S with 600F4
1/2000 @ 6,3
ISO 800
+0,3 EV (ETTR)

LR5 as RAW converter, CS6 with TK luminosity masks.
Sharpened for web after resizing.
Some gardening done on reeds around bill.

C&C welcome!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Andre,

Love that you can see an eye for both the Heron and the fish. The tail of the fish is a nice plus, as it adds a sense of urgency on its part.

Looks just a tad bit bright on my monitor.

Wish the head were angled just slightly toward us as well.

Miguel

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, striking image. I am familiar with the Great Blue Heron but not the Goliath, so I would assume this is a giant of a bird. Thank you for sharing.

[Diane Miller]

Nice detail and color -- the poor fish looks resigned and the water droplets are a great touch. I might think about darkening the body a little, with contrast bumped a little, but that might not be true to the bird. (I don't know it.)

I might touch out the one OOF blade that's almost in the center of the frame.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent portrait. Beautiful colors, nice habitat. Fish is bonus.Nice composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you all for comments! Diane, did darken the fish and white part of bill, was bordering on blown HL(Presume that is one the dangers of ETTR?)

[Diane Miller]

I can see, now that you mention it, that the light parts of the fish are gray. With proper ETTR (i.e. don't go so far as to blow out whites beyond raw recovery) it is possible to darken the lightest tones without pulling whites down to gray. But maybe this one was was just too overexposed. I think a little less gray there could look good.

I was thinking of darkening the body, which is a lot lighter than the neck and head, but maybe that's not true to what the bird should look like.

Great shot in any case!