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Thread: American Bittern

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    Default American Bittern

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    This image was created at Montezuma national wildlife refuge in Tyre, New York on 4/19/18 at 8:43AM. Image adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop.

    Hand held, Full frame.

    Canon 5D MarkIV
    Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
    600mm
    ISO 3200
    f7.1
    1/640sec

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Well seen and captured, John. So tough to get these guys in the open. Perhaps a touch of sharpening on the head, and evicting the oof blob on the left. Were it mine I might attempt the removal of the one uppermost reed that arches up to the right, but that might not be your style

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    This is a really hard bird to get a quality image of. I had one this spring at point blank range and in the open, got loads of images of it but didn't keep any as I didn't like them. Details look pretty good here John but the rest of the image does not work for me. The white balance is off and the bird is too cool and blue. American Bittern has orange, yellow and brown tones and is very warm. I would start by going back to the raw and warming this up before conversion. Or at the very least go into curves and choose the white dropper and put it on the white of the neck or chin and I would think it would warm the image up a bit to get you moving in the right direction. The large reeds crossing over the bird are distracting, the blob on the bottom left and the dark blob on the left in the water are distracting as well.

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    A challenging subject for sure, but the reeds really clutter this frame up for me, particularly the three in the foreground. Sure is a beautiful bird though.

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    Sorry John, image quality and intersecting branches just doesn't work here although an american bittern certainly is a thrill to see!

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Bummer about those three oof FG branches! Other than that, after warming up the WB and removing the blob at left, I like it tons. Good vertical comp, and nice details on the bittern.

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