Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

[Noel Heustis]

Last week I finally started taking my canoe out on the Hillsborough River and ended up with some great opportunities. The river has lots of natural perches and subjects with lots of different lighting and BG options. Some of my favorite images are well lit subjects against dark bg’s and that’s what I was lucky enough to find. This juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron posed on a tree that was likely knocked down in Hurricane Irma.
Below are short rundowns of settings and my post processing:

Canon 7Dii and 100-400mm ii
ISO 800
AV ƒ/8
TV 1/2500
Focal Length 560mm
Manual Exposure / Servo / AF Point Expansion / Back Button Focus

Processed in DPP4 and PScc

I cropped a bit off the top and the right side; added a 50% reduced opacity 25/25 NIK DE and usual sharpening after resizing.

Thanks for taking the time to look. As always, telling me what you like about the shot, and what might improve the final product is appreciated.

[Bill Dix]

These are such photogenic birds that they work nicely in portrait. He stands out nicely against the dark BG. Unfortunately, posted at this size I can't see the whole bird on my monitor, even if I press F11.

[stuart wanuck]

noel great job looks very detailed and nice portrait

[John Mack]

Looks great with the dark background. I would sharpen around the eye some more. Nice light.

[Noel Heustis]

Thanks for taking a look and commenting. Bill - just hold down control and press - (minus) a few times and then when you're done and you want your normal size back hold down control and press + (plus) a few times. If you're on a Mac it's just command instead of control.