Great Blue Heron

[Bee Emily]

Whately, MA USA
near my home in a swampy area
about 4pm
taken within 20 feet and I was out in the open field

Canon 10D
Canon 100-400mm lens
300mm
1/400
iso 400
f5.6
handheld
not cropped

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice portrait and eye contact. I would sharpen the bird a bit more and put him further to to the right in the frame.

[Doug Brown]

I like the pose and the eye contact. Agree with Axel about the crop and additional sharpening. I don't usually find the 100-400 all that sharp at f/5.6. It doesn't seem like you had enough light to stop down. Thanks for posting!

[Tony Whitehead]

I agree with Axel and Doug re sharpening. May rotate CCW as what I assume is water bottom left is sloping significantly. This is a very nice portrait, Emily. Here is a version with some rotation and sharpening. This has accentuated some cloning work around the back of the head and neck.

[Linda Robbins]

Tony's repost has improved this nice portrait. Very nice head angle. The cloning artifacts are very obvious...but that is a quick fix.

[Stu Bowie]

Nits covered on the sharpening, and Tony has shown us how. Lovely looking Heron.

[Bee Emily]

I tried to put all the suggestions made by you pros. How did I do?

[Tony Whitehead]

Good job, Bee. Just a little more time smoothing out the vertical lines in the extended canvas. I find the clone stamp in lighten or darken mode at a low opacity useful for this.

[Doug Brown]

Your repost is a big improvement! Good suggestions by Tony.