Confused Heron ?

[Dave Woeller]

Not sure this Green Backed Heron is in his natural environment :), but in this case I'll say thank you sir and snap away. I applied a slight blur to backround and burned the bg to help the bird stand out a bit more. I sharpened the eye a bit more than the bird also. So please set me straight. am I going the right way? Should I crop off a bit on the right to make the eye closer to the intersecting 3rd, or would that make the frame too tight on the bird?

Canon 40D
100-40F/11
1/250th sec

Thanks to all for the support and patience on previous posts.

[Dave Phillips]

nice green heron Dave....In have literally shot 1,000's of these and came to conclusion that
bright overcast is absolutely best light.....light is a bit harsh here, but very workable.
You could open up a good bit from f/11 and get a much smoother bg probably.

On the rule of thirds....it's a good starting point but not a must IMO. You still need to give room for bird to look into.
The image is now probably as tight as it can be. Your exposure looks very good, that little white strip on the adult breast is hard to keep detail in.....good job sir

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Dave,
I like your composition, image, and exposure. The background is very soft and pleasing to the eyes. You have a good head angle and eye contact. I like the details in the feathers. One recommendation would be to add just a tad of canvas on the bottom frame for the feet...good show...looking foward to your next creation...:cool:

[Lance Peters]

Hi Dave - lovely detail - nice head angle and eye contact and BG iis great.

Unusall perch :)

[Desmond Chan]

On the rule of thirds....it's a good starting point but not a must IMO.

I tend to agree. A bit more room on the right would be better.

As an aside, I'm reading two books which happen to be written by photogs from Germany. It seems like instead of rule of thirds, they use Golden ratios, harmonic dividing lines, etc.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Call it what you will, the rule of thirds or the golden ratio, it all amounts to the same thing - your eye knows when things are 'right'. It is all about proportion.
Regards,
Nicki

[Desmond Chan]

Call it what you will, the rule of thirds or the golden ratio, it all amounts to the same thing - your eye knows when things are 'right'. It is all about proportion.
Regards,
Nicki

Actually, rule of thirds and the golden ratio are technically not the same thing, although they serve us the same way.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great details Dave. Background is very nice, bird is very sharp.
Regards,

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Actually, rule of thirds and the golden ratio are technically not the same thing, although they serve us the same way.

Desmond, what I said was that they amounted to the same thing, not that they were the same thing...;)
Regards,
Nicki

[Dave Woeller]

I appreciate the comments and discussion on the rule of thirds. In the past I had always been told to place the main subject at an intersecting line. Since I've been here I hear quite a bit about eye placement. I might mention that on this particular day I was on a dock shooting a sunken, decaying oyster boat. My wife said she thought there was a bittern or something behind me and when I turned this fellow was there. I grabbed a few frames before he took off. I had reservations about posting the bird on a boat railing. I guess the moral remains to always be aware of all your surroundings.

[Katie Rupp]

Very nice Heron, Dave! Somewhere I read that a photographer should remember to turnaround and look at the view behind them because sometimes that's where the best shot is, looks like it was true for you.

[Desmond Chan]

[snip] My wife said she thought there was a bittern or something behind me and when I turned this fellow was there. I grabbed a few frames before he took off. I had reservations about posting the bird on a boat railing. I guess the moral remains to always be aware of all your surroundings.

It's still a good photograph of a heron though. I don't think you can have in every frame an award winning shot.

[Doug Brown]

Excellent comments by the ETL Gang! I would only add that in the future, please limit your photos to 800 pixels on the long side.

[Dave Woeller]

Sorry bout the size (Brain Freeze?) :( Don't know how it happened. I'll be more careful in the future.

[Alfred Forns]

Second Doug on the great comments !!!!

The biggest change here would have been using a wider aperture I'm always more concern with the bg having detail You did well in PS but can still tell some work was done.

Desmond regarding the rules of third or harmonic diving lines ....... The rule of thirds is just a starting point and suggestion but if you look at it will be in play most of the time. Harmonic lines is totally subjective and if you look at their images will mostly conform to the rule of thirds !!!! One powerful tool !!