Green Heron

[WIlliam Maroldo]

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO1250~F6.3~1/1250 sec~manual exposure~Hand Held~6-6-2010~Brazos Bend State Park, Texas~CS4
Another "with a side of veggies" image. The background was green from duckweed-in ACR dropped green saturation was down, removed dark spots and stuff from background as well.
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[arash_hazeghi]

strong points are nice pose, BG good perch and the fish, good eye contact too.
critical focus point seems to be on the wing area as opposed to the head and a bit grainy looking overall. I feel there might be a greenish cast but I might be wrong.

[Alfred Forns]

Agree with Arash and would increase density overall, seems a little light? Great on the catch pose and one fine looking fish !!! Excellent !!

[Bill Dix]

Hi Bill. Great pose, eye contact, capture angle an composition; fish and veggies a plus. Agree with above comments, especially the need for a bit more density.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Bill, Nice pose and well placed within the frame. Agree about the focus point and the need to bring the image up a bit. At first I thought there might be a greenish caste also but am not 100%. Love the fish and weeds...

[Dave Leroy]

I really like the pose and composition.
Good idea about increasing density and I also think there may be a bit of green cast.

Well done on getting a nice pose with the fish and setting.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks guys! First about the greenish cast. As I mentioned the background was duckweed (very green) which gives everything a greenish cast, and I used ACR to drop down green saturation, but if I go too far the veggies turn gray. I guess I should selectively adj the background.
Graininess (noise): not surprising at ISO 1250, even with pushing the exposure. The problem is if you start with a dark subject you can't shift exposure enough to avoid noise completely, without clipping the highlights. No noise reduction was used, but I think I may very well be useful here. Also darkening the image a bit should help. I might add shot under overcast conditions.
Critical focus error; quite possible. I wish the bird would stand still so I could get it right!
The mention of density is something I haven't heard mention of much. Arash, you might be able to answer this question. As you increase ISO (leaving noise out of the equation) is there a corresponding decrease in density? Appreciate the feedback!!! regards~Bill

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks guys! First about the greenish cast. As I mentioned the background was duckweed (very green) which gives everything a greenish cast, and I used ACR to drop down green saturation, but if I go too far the veggies turn gray. I guess I should selectively adj the background.
Graininess (noise): not surprising at ISO 1250, even with pushing the exposure. The problem is if you start with a dark subject you can't shift exposure enough to avoid noise completely, without clipping the highlights. No noise reduction was used, but I think I may very well be useful here. Also darkening the image a bit should help. I might add shot under overcast conditions.
Critical focus error; quite possible. I wish the bird would stand still so I could get it right!
The mention of density is something I haven't heard mention of much. Arash, you might be able to answer this question. As you increase ISO (leaving noise out of the equation) is there a corresponding decrease in density? Appreciate the feedback!!! regards~Bill

Density as in color density or contrast?

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Bill,

Greetings. You might try the middle eyedropper in curves on a likely gray spot on the rocks (the darker gray spot to the left of the white splotch in the middle at the bottom edge is a good candidate). When I tried it it left green alone but increased red and dropped blue, for good effect. Then, adding a bit of contrast is good.

The reds in the feet are blown a bit. Perhaps they can be recovered in raw conversion.

IMO, "density" in not impacted by ISO (outside of exposure). Methinks, the tone curve applied (in RAW) makes all the difference... Picture controls for Nikon (don't know what it's called for Sony).

Cheers,

-Michael-