Great Blue Heron

[Michael Zajac]

Canon 1D Mark III
500mm
ISO 400
1/1250 SEC. AT F/4.5

[Randy Stout]

Michael:

Nice soft light giving even exposure. Nice plumage, wing position,leg position and stick.

Could stand to be a bit sharper. The light background in the middle is distracting. The framing is too tight for my taste.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Michael, correct me if I'm wrong, but this image looks like it has been stripped of it's fine details by an aggressive round off noise removal? I say this because it looks otherwise well focussed and sharp enough. I agree with Randy about the white area in BG, and about needing more room. Excellent landing pose though, and I like the senseof speed with the ruffled feathers!

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Very interesting observation. In going back again, it is striking how little detail there is in the upper neck, and other areas as well. Looks almost as if airbrushed. I wouldn't have expected too much noise at this ISO, requiring stong noise reduction. Perhaps very underexposed?

Randy

[Grace Scalzo]

...or is it a large crop? I will be interested to hear more about the processing applied here as the image sure has alot of potential with that nice pose.

[john crookes]

I believe it may be from noise reduction also but there is a lot of detail to be brought out it also may be just a flat file that needs tweaking
i applied just a little selective sharpening to areas of the heron and some of the feathers also

[Michael Zajac]

Sorry about that - The noise reduction was inversed by mistake-hope this is better.

[Grace Scalzo]

That looks better, but it's still real tight, did you trim this at all?

[denise ippolito]

Michael, I'm glad that you decided to become a BPN Member after you tried it out! This is a good first post-I like the repost much better and agree it is a bit tight. I also find the BG a bit distracting-This is a very nice action shot and I know that once you get use to sharpening for the web instead of print it will be fine.Good job and welcome to BPN AS A MEMBER!!

[Arthur Morris]

Both reposts are excellent. With the bird large in the frame, the light area does not bug me. The pose and action are fabulous.

Would not mind a bit more room fore and aft. All in all, very well done.

Michael: a belated welcome and a big time thanks for your memmbership support.