Little Blue Heron

[gail bisson]

This Lil' Blue Heron is lost! He is about 1500 miles out of his usual range.
Only a handful of recordings fir Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He has become a super star for all the birders but I have been going out at sunrise and always have him to myself.
Canon 1 DX3 600mm and 1.4 x
ISO 2500 F 5.6 SS 1/500
I have many pics with him in the nice early morning light but this one was my favorite of the morning. I have lots of pictures of little Blue's in Florida but
I really like the different environmental setting shown in this image.
PP: Usual LR sliders. crop to 65% FF.
Nothing added and cloned out 2 small spots in the water.Dodged the black spot behind bird behind the heron Topaz Denoise AI used on BG.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Great alert hunting pose, focused on his prey. Love the raised foot. Not your usual Bunche Beach environment. We had an immature one in my local preserve in Princeton many years ago, and he was also a star; but not nearly as out of range as Cape Breton. Lovely shot, very sharp almost to the point of borderline oversharp in a few spots.

[Randy Stout]

GAIL:

Good critique from Bill. The bg is really neat, makes it seem like story weather to me. Like the composition, foot up.

Cheers

Randy

PS: What is your overall impression of Topaz DeNoise AI? I tried it several different times on two different Macs, but it was very clunky and would only work as a stand alone, not integrated with PS or LR. I am running Catalina, and there have been lots of chatter about problems with that software and it.

[Brian Sump]

Gail, short on words on this photo as your work is astounding. The colors and dof make it quite a work of art.

[Brian Sump]

GAIL:

Good critique from Bill. The bg is really neat, makes it seem like story weather to me. Like the composition, foot up.

Cheers

Randy

PS: What is your overall impression of Topaz DeNoise AI? I tried it several different times on two different Macs, but it was very clunky and would only work as a stand alone, not integrated with PS or LR. I am running Catalina, and there have been lots of chatter about problems with that software and it.

Randy, I use Topaz Denoise integrated with on my Mac w/ Catalina 10.15.2, fwiw. I had to go into the Topaz folder, copy the plug in and paste it in the PS plug-ins folder in order to integrate. Since then, it's seamless and a gem to work with!

[Andreas Liedmann]

HI Gail ... nice clean shot .
The concentrated look of the bird makes this for me .. colors looking good as does he overall tones .

Never understand why folks use NR at this low ISO .... unless the frame is way underexposed or the scene is foggy / low contrast .

If this was mine I might back off on sharpening .

TFS Andreas

[dankearl]

Beautiful Gail, sharpness looks oK to me.
I use NR on every bird photo. every one. I rarely go under iso1000, most
bird photos are in the higher range ISO because you need the shutter speed.
I see no reason not to use it.
I don't think perfect exposure can make the BG of an iso2500 look good enough for me without it.
Bird photography is not landscape or even wildlife photography.
I really do not understand that Criticism.
I think most every photographer here uses NR on anything over about 1000,
I would be surprised if they did not.

[dankearl]

Andreas, will you post a 65% crop (typical) of a iso2500 photo will no noise reduction from a 24mp camera that is not a D5 and not
a white, light or sky BG. I want to see it.
Your last post of Geese was at iso2000 and minor crop with light BG and I thought it would look better with some NR applied to the BG.
What is your reason for not doing it? What are you trying to save?
Gail applied NR to a bokeh. What is the point of any noise in a bokeh?
She states she uses in BG only as do I 99% of time.
I am really interested in your reasoning as it relates to background in bird photography?
It takes me 5 seconds to select and run NR.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Dan .... simply I do see things very different and no need to go in depth into the gimmicks .... we have been there already .
And i do see no point for proofing my views ....

BTW talked about the CANON EOS 1Dx MK II and III and not any other camera !!!

Andreas

[dankearl]

I am sorry Andreas, not trying to argue, however you give advice on using masks, selections,
learning to use all the Processing tools but using simple NR on high iso photos is a gimmick?
And using tonal mapping and luminosity masks is standard processing?
I do not understand your advice.

[Gary Esman]

Really like the pose here, has a strong 3D look to it.

Gary

[arash_hazeghi]

image is great Gail, love the low angle BG and the sharp details. nice soft light. your processing looks great from here and I would not change a thing except for warming the WB a touch.

the 1DX III definitely needs noise reduction at ISO 2500 to look clean, as with any other camera when shooting birds at high ISO no question about it and you did the right thing here.

TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wow Gail, that is awesome! Such richness to the colours. Great low angle, and the rising foot is an excellent touch.

He has become a super star for all the birders but I have been going out at sunrise and always have him to myself.

He he, I can relate to that!

[John Mack]

Low angle is spot on. Like the leg/foot about to come out of the water. Detail looks nice.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the mysterious looking background, the water, and the killer raised foot. Simple and sublime.

a

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hey Gail, I am late to the party. Very nice image, one of your best I think. You finding a Little Blue Heron is like the winter after Hurricane Sandy when the Razorbills were around Florida. Lovely image, thank you for sharing.