Heron Landing

[Phil Ertel]

This image of a Great Blue Heron was captured at Bond Park in Cary North Carolina. The image was made on Friday October 17th on an over cast morning at 8:43AM. I had crawled under some low hanging branches of a bush in hopes of getting in position to capture some images of ducks landing and taking off. Much to my surprise this heron suddenly appeared. It stayed for just a few minutes. The ducks did not cooperate.

This image was processed in ACR. I added canvas to the right and left and filled to match. I also added the tips of the expended feathers. Both the canvas and wing tips were added using Quick Masking techniques as described in Robert O’Tooles’s APTAT. I added a touch of black to neutrals and blacks in selective colors. The eyes were also processed per APTATS. I selected the background and ran noise reduction.

Thanks for looking and of course any critiques.

Regards,

Phil

Camera: 40D
Lens: Canon EF500mm f/4 IS USM
Exposure: 1/400s at f/4.0
Exposure Compensation: +1
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
ISO: 800
Flash: did not fire
Hand held with tripod foot in the sand.

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice capture Phil.
I like the open wing spread, you display sharp details and good colors...good show...:cool:

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Phil, This image is in the wrong Forum. It should be in Eager To Teach! It is spectacularly sharp anmd the pose and the spash are both killer. Thanks for the APTATS plug; it is greatly appreciated.

[denise ippolito]

Great Capture Phil, I agree w/ the experts.You got a winer here.Would love to see the before post!

[Gail Spitler]

Very impressive. I agree with Denise; it would be very instructive to see the before image to compare with the final result.
Very, very well done.
Gail

[Lance Peters]

Fanatstic Phil - well done patience and stealth paid off for you big time with this one. Well done with the PS work as well.
Love it :)

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Phil:

A killer of a photograph. When the Master praises your capture and skills you can take it to the bank that it is a spectacular photo. I whole heartedly agree with Artie. :)

Thanks for sharing.

Uncle Gus :D:D

[Alfred Forns]

One spectacular image and nothing not to like !!!! Big Time Congrats .... and great PS work also !!!

[Gail Spitler]

Phil - I noticed 3 white specks near the bird's head ( 2 to the left and 1 to the right) that could be cleaned up. Again, great image.
Gail

[Phil Ertel]

Thanks all for your comments.

I am at work but will try and post the image before I "fixed the wing tips later tonight. I forgot to mention that I also edited out two out of focus ducks.

Gail, the white spots you noticed are water drops. I debated on if I should remove them or not. As you can see I have left them in for now. Do others find them distracting? They would be easy to remove.

Thanks Much!

Phil

[Gus Hallgren]

What sharp eyes you have Gail, I had to use my lighted magnifying glass to find the second to the left.

Wish i could see like that.

Uncle Gus

[Phil Ertel]

This is for those of you that wanted to see the before image.

I had positioned myself in hopes of capturing ducks in motion when this big fellow flew in. It caught me by surprise and I had no time to move back to keep it in frame. I snapped off four images. The one presented was the first of this short series. I was not happy when I looked the image in camera but when I got home I though I thought it was worth the effort to save.

Here is image after processing in ACR and as it came into CS3. I started by adding canvas so I could rebuild the wing tips. Then using the procedures describe in APTATS I fixed each wing tip. I used other images of Great Blue Heron as a reference to reconstruct the wing as accurately as possible. I then filled in the new canvas and area from straightening using a combination of APTATS and cloning. Last I edited out the uncooperative ducks; also using a combination of APTATS and cloning. Resized for the web sharpen and posted. This took me about one and a half-hours. I think it was worth the effort.

I would not have been able to reconstruct the wing tips and effectively filled in the added canvas without what I learned from Robert O"Toole's APTATS and examples of its used in the forums here. I would also like to thanks everyone who has given critiques as I believe they have improved my photography and processing of images. Thanks again.

Regards,

Phil

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for sharing the ORIG and the story. And great Quick Masking work! You did an incredible job with the wing ends.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Congratulations Phil on an awesome capture and fabulous PS work.
A keeper that should be framed and displayed.
Regards,

[Nagesh Mula]

Amazing capture Phil and thanks for sharing this picture.