The light angle is less than optimal, but I feel that since the main part of the subject is in the light it works OK still. You could try a little S/H to bring out the shadows.
On the BG, I think it is nice to see environment some, but in this case there are a lot of really bright spots back there. I would blur and darken it the BG some.
Hi Steve,
Jim has done a great job of critique. Blurring the background a bit as suggested would help a bit but it is so close to the subject it will probably not look natural. Background is what it is, and if it's your first Black-crowned, you should be very happy. where did you find him?
Thank you Jim, Fabs & Maxis for your comments. I will have to come back to this image (and many others) when I finally start using CS3.
Maxis... My "Strong Contrast"... Is that a good thing or a bad thing? U talking about contrast I've added in LR or what was captured in the camera?
Almost forgot... Fabs... This was taken at White Rock Lake which is almost smack in the middle of Dallas. I shoot there quite a bit as the birds are very used to people being around. First time I'd seem one of these though. Beautiful birds.
Steve
Last edited by Steve Wheeler; 02-10-2008 at 09:09 PM.
The comments you've already gotten are awesome. Perhaps one additional observation...It looks to me like you ran Noise Reduction on the bird (the feathers on the breast have a telltale "stucco" look to them). To preserve the detail on the subject, I usually try to limit any NR applied to the background only. That way, you won't lose the fine feather details on the bird. Great capture of a truly lovely bird.
Thanks Bob... I did run the NR available in Ligthroom and I see what yo mean about the breast feathers. I'm not up to to speed on Photoshop so for now I'll have to go back and tone it down some in LR and see if that helps.
Black Crowned Night Heron
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