Green Heron (juvenile)

[Mark Schmitt]

The perch juts out over a pond. Though it is not very artistic, and lacks character, it's what was available

PP: The BG, in the original image, was more " had more distinct edges around colour blotches". I opted to use a mask and then applied "gausian blur" to soften and diffuse the colours and render them as more blended color. Two masks were incorporated on the bird for selective sharpening ( I don't do global sharpening, esp. where I want the BG to remain free of noise): another layer was created of the perch and dodge and burn was used to accentuate definition.

Self critique: the BG works well and anchors the image: the head and crest could be a little sharper, even though selective sharpening was applied: vertical crop was applied as I did not want to clip the perch, perhaps a little off the top.

EXIF
Camera: Canon 30 D
Lense: Canon EF 500 IS L
Mode: all manual
Metering: partial
ISO: 250
White bal. custom 5500 K
Exposure: 1/320 @ f 4.5; ambient light; monopod

Feel free ;)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Stunning image with a great pose and lighting as well as wonderful detail and excellent eye contact. Pleasing BG too. The composition is well done and congratulations on a fine image .

[Juan Aragonés]

Mark the Bg works really nice for me and I like the green colour a lot. The bird pose is very good and it seems like if the heron iwere posing like a profesional model ;-)
Sharpness is Ok. The perch is very straigh for my taste.
As always, excelent self-critic :-)

[Ramon M. Casares]

I agree with Juan about the perch, I would also suggest to sharpen the bird's edges a bit as the look a little soft IMO, pose, light, BG, and comp are simply beautifull! Congratulations!

[Mark Schmitt]

Mark the Bg works really nice for me and I like the green colour a lot. The bird pose is very good and it seems like if the heron iwere posing like a profesional model ;-)
Sharpness is Ok. The perch is very straigh for my taste.
As always, excelent self-critic :-)

Thanks Juan: I know the perch is too straight. I didn't like it either but I couldn't get the bird to choose a better one :D
Thanks again.

[Dave Phillips]

love the bg....works very well.
Might be an improvement to get the branch out of the "exact" lower corner