Tricolored Heron Portrait

[Garry Gibson]

I took this at Gatorland last week during a seminar with Robert Amoruso.
The seminar, by the way, was excellent in every way.

Mark1 DSII
70-200 f4 with 1.4 TC at 280 MM
AV mode
ISO 400 1/250 F 5.6

I cloned out a small white area to the right of the bird and cropped
from the left to take out a portion of the wing.

I appreciate any help or criticism to better this image.
thanks
Garry

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Gary I like the pose for the bird and clean bg !! ... btw if you can give compensation used, makes a difference evaluating your image.

Main problem is exposure/processing The white feathers up top are blown and have no detail, the bird looks dark and over saturated. Looks like you had some back light, for it you have to over expose the bird a bit and use some fill light, very little so you wont kill detail in the feathers, particularly the whites.

Crop wise you don't want to have the bird so centered and would take some form the left. For the bg can make up a brush and run Gaussian blear to smooth a bit more. btw its good to go back an look at what one of this birds looks like then process, sometimes we get carried away.

Looking forward to the next one and don't forget to leave comments for others !!

[Dave Leroy]

I like the pose and really like the idea of the shot.

Well done.

[Troy Lim]

Agree with cutting a bit off left, and I would brighten the bird up just a bit. Fill flash would have bring up the bird closer to the brightness of the BG.
With that, I still like the shot. Nice details.

[Bob Decker]

I like this shot. I'm do a little work to brighten the bird and recover some of the blown highlights. It's presented as a portrait and as a portrait I don't mind the centering of the subject so much. Look at classical people portraiture and you'll see that done a lot. Birds are people too! ;)

[Lance Peters]

HI Gary - agree with AL 100% - great advice.
Very easy to overdo the PP - If you get it close in camera there is very little required after the fact.
Nice fine feather detail throughout!!

Keep em coming and dont forget to comment on other peoples images.
:)

[Dave Mills]

Hi Garry, I also agree with Al and feel he said it all for me. I do like how the feathers are spiking on it's head...

[Cory Bucher]

Agree with the above comments, I would have liked to seen the entire beak in focus as well. Good job none the less

[Garry Gibson]

Thanks for the comments all. I had my flash on the camera I had on the
tripod and I was just walking around on the boardwalk looking
at the nesting birds.
Several of us said at the class that it would definitely be worth investing
in another flash after seeing what could be done even with a little fill.
I'll start from scratch on it and incorporate your suggestions. Again
thanks for the comments.
Garry