Green Heron... Feather Care

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image of a Green Heron preening at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm PF + Nikon 1.4 III Teleconverter, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/2000 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1250 Auto ! WB, image captured at 700mm (1050mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2022 and Topaz Denoise AI
Cropped from 2x2 to 4x5 for composition and presentation

[Paul Burdett]

Lots of detail here Joe. Love the preening pose and overall composition. Colours and sharpness look good although I'm seeing some "blurry/muddiness" in the feather detail on the left middle side and also a faint halo around the top of the bird's head.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lots of detail here Joe. Love the preening pose and overall composition. Colours and sharpness look good although I'm seeing some "blurry/muddiness" in the feather detail on the left middle side and also a faint halo around the top of the bird's head.

Hi Paul, thank you for viewing and commenting. I see the blurry/muddiness you commented on. I think it must be a depth of field issue, probably should have taken the teleconverter off and then cropped the image. Sometimes putting it one to fill the viewfinder is not the right decision. Thanks again for commenting...

[Andreas Liedmann]

hi Joe .... you photographed the preening behavior nicely .
processing looks good to me , from all aspects .
agree with Paul about the smudgy areas , to me it is no DOF ISSUE . I would rather think a noise reduction issue .... do not see any need at iso 1250 .

tfs Andreas

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, classic pose of a Heron.

I quite like it Joe, but it's not quite grabbing me and I wonder if:

- If you have shot the subject portrait to then go for a 5x4 format and not landscape format
- If you double processed, reduced the blue in version one, then duplicated the original one with the blue sky and added this as a layer. It may then remove the blue fringing and the blue doesn't tarnish the main colours of the subject, especially the darks.
- Get a bit more separation between bill and plumage

Joe, I have no idea on colours and could be totally wrong. DoF is what it is and nothing you can do, but minor manipulations to bolster the file/image may help, or indeed you feel that as presented is fine, just making some suggestions.

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

hi Joe .... you photographed the preening behavior nicely .
processing looks good to me , from all aspects .
agree with Paul about the smudgy areas , to me it is no DOF ISSUE . I would rather think a noise reduction issue .... do not see any need at iso 1250 .

tfs Andreas

Hi Andreas, thank you for viewing and commenting. I still think DOF issue. I checked how much depth of field I had at that distance it was 8 cm (3.15 inches), that is 4cm (1.57 inches either side of the eye which I focused on. Hoping your shoulder is improving and healing...

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, classic pose of a Heron.

I quite like it Joe, but it's not quite grabbing me and I wonder if:

- If you have shot the subject portrait to then go for a 5x4 format and not landscape format
- If you double processed, reduced the blue in version one, then duplicated the original one with the blue sky and added this as a layer. It may then remove the blue fringing and the blue doesn't tarnish the main colours of the subject, especially the darks.
- Get a bit more separation between bill and plumage

Joe, I have no idea on colours and could be totally wrong. DoF is what it is and nothing you can do, but minor manipulations to bolster the file/image may help, or indeed you feel that as presented is fine, just making some suggestions.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, thank you for viewing and commenting. Nice to have you back, your suggestions are well taken. I did double process the image using the masking in Lightroom. I revisited the master file and processed it again. I changed the crop as you suggested and did not double process the image. Here is a reposte. WDYT?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, I was hopping you had shot portrait, but as it's landscape, now the vertical crop doesn't work, revert back to the previous but try 4x3 ration, it's less tight, but you might need to add canvas. You need to DP via PS using layers, you still have the blue fringing. Probably keep to as posted.

Nice to have you back

Cheers, but back to it end of next week!!!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andreas, thank you for viewing and commenting. I still think DOF issue. I checked how much depth of field I had at that distance it was 8 cm (3.15 inches), that is 4cm (1.57 inches either side of the eye which I focused on. Hoping your shoulder is improving and healing...

thanx Joe my shoulder is very slowly improving still working one handed .
I leave the dof view to you , as we think just so different when it comes to processing . and honestly without seeing the raw it is just guess work ....
thanx for coming back with a comment
cheers Andreas