Great Blue Heron

[Joseph Przybyla]

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

Nikon D500
Nikon 500mm PF, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 560 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 500mm (750mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, and Topaz Photo AI
Cropped slightly for composition and presentation

[Dorian Anderson]

Super lighting, colors, and details. That yellow eye cracks in the muted blue surroundings. My only issue is the pose/orientation as a more profile view would have
minimized the out-of-focus upper back as presented. As is, you left a full stop of depth on the table by using f/5.6 instead of f/8. Whites on chin might have a
slight green cast, but wait for others to weigh in on that subtlety. But a nice image all around.

[Kurt Bowman]

Awesome detail and I like the pose myself. I'm not seeing the color cast Dorian is seeing. But I do also wish you stopped down to f/8 or so to get more DOF here. Still nicely done!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Dorian and Kurt, thank you for viewing and commenting. I don't think F/8 would have changed much, I was quite close to the bird, the bird is very large, and the depth of field very narrow even at F/8. Unless the image is a side-view profile, focus on what should be sharp and let the rest go soft. The other way to have the whole image sharp is to move back and then crop but the detail shown will not be as good. Thanks again for viewing....

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Joe ... i am ok with this as presented , as all key elements show great details and sharpness .
Head turn is nice , good overall color and tonal range .

TFS Andreas