GBH

[Kambiz Shoarinejad]

Shot during lunch time today... Would welcome and appreciate any and all C&C... Thanks...

Nikon D4, 600mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 560

[Arthur Morris]

Howdy. Where was this bird photographed? I believe that it is a Purple Heron not a GBH. The bird is relatively sharp but the image is over-saturated to the point that the feathers look like enamel without any fine detail at all. In an ideal world the bird would be flying toward you rather than away.

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[Marina Scarr]

This is the first post I have seen of yours, so welcome to BPN and thanks for posting. Nice to have a lunch break during which you can photograph.

Not sure on the species since I have no idea where this was taken. Although the bird is flying away, the pose is pretty good. As Artie mentions, the image is oversaturated, but I don't feel as though the bidr is sharp and I am not seeing much in terms of feather details on your heron.

[Kambiz Shoarinejad]

Thank you so much Arthur and Marina for your feedback. Below is a second edit trying to address some of your comments. Is this better?

As for flight direction, the bird is not flying away from the camera; rather parallel to the sensor plane which, I think, is not necessarily a bad direction.

As for the location, I shot this in Upper Newport Bay in Newport Beach, CA. It is close to where I work for my day job. So at lunch break, I can just take a quick drive around the bay, and shoot from my car, if I find anything interesting.

As for the species, I am no bird expert, not even close! But I didn't know that we have purple herons there, and it just looked like a GBH to me.

[Arthur Morris]

My bad on the Purple Heron, an Old World species... It is indeed a Great Blue Heron. The over-saturated neck got me :( The bird is indeed angling away from the imaging sensor as the feet are well closer to us than the bird's head. Much better on the saturation but still no feather detail. Please post a JPEG that represents the full frame original capture without and image optimization, just what came out of the camera.

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[Kambiz Shoarinejad]

Thanks Arthur. Unfortunately I don't have JPEG out of camera. I shoot in RAW only. I suppose I can just apply one of the camera profiles in LR and export to JPEG.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Arthur. Unfortunately I don't have JPEG out of camera. I shoot in RAW only. I suppose I can just apply one of the camera profiles in LR and export to JPEG.

Actually, all modern digital cameras create a large sized embedded JPEG at the moment of capture. I do not know how to extract them from Nikon RAW files but somebody does. No matter, just convert the RAW file with no adjustments and then create a JPEG that shows the full frame. We are trying to figure out why the bird's feathers show no detail...

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[Kambiz Shoarinejad]

OK, here it is:

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Kambiz,

Marina was right; the image is not sharply focused. And it is a big crop. Thanks for posting the ORIG. Furthermore it is clear now that the repost is also over-saturated. Easy does it... I rarely touch the SAT slider; try the Vibrance slider instead...

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