that virtually every image posted here has a spic-n-span clean background. And I have many GBH images that do just that. But birds do live in habitat. When I got to Peace Valley Park (PA) this morning, the water was very high (the highest I have seen it in a long time). There were no mud flats. The snags were underwater and the activity was all along the edges. As I watched this heron along the edge of what should have been a mud flat, I kinda liked the way he was positioned against the habitat background. So I made a few images... both verticals and horizontals.
I took the liberty of adjusting the background/foreground luminosity a bit to try and help your GBH stand out from the background. Just an option to maintain the environment, but reduce the competition with the bird somewhat.
It can be adjusted to taste, but hopefully this illustrates the point.
The decreased luminosty does help Showing the bird in habitat works for me. The hibiscus is "looking" at the same thingmakes it interesting. Would it help to slightly brighten and increase the contrast of the bird?
I like the bird, the background habitat, the flower, the COMP, and the darker looking repost. (Good job by Randy.) I am wondering why nobody mentioned the fact that the bird's head is clearly angled away from the viewer....
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