Great Blue heron

[Peter Farrell]

Taken about 90 minutes before sunset. I waited for the heron to get into a more even light situation.
Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f5.6, 1/1250, iso1000, ev +0.3. Cropped to portrait and cropped dark area off top, levels, curves, sharpen, burned whites in head.

[Bob Decker]

Nice looking shot, Peter. The whites look a tad hot on this monitor but there's good detail everywhere else. Since I'm on my laptop I'm suspicious of what I think I see at times. ;) You didn't mention any noise reduction and it does look like there's some noise in the BG. The thing that seems to be bothering me the most is how the darker/brown area aligns with his bill and the top-line of his head. Maybe a slightly lower perspective to have put all of his head in front of brown would've helped a tad? Always easier to notice nit-picky stuff like that after the fact. :)

[Dave Leroy]

I like the composition and the very nice head turn.

Too bird to expose for with out blowing out the whites. I am wondering if the histogram on camera was showing a few blown highlights?

Looks like a very nice shooting angle.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Peter, nice positioning of the subject but agree with Bob relating to the noise and the blown whites.
I would not have gone + 1/3 ev but just the opposite...

[arash_hazeghi]

nice pose and natural environment adds, highlights are hot but not blown would try recovery, also the critical focus plain is on the neck instead of head.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Peter Excellent suggestions

Couple points I can add, the settings are a little odd? Can lower the shutter speed for a lower ISO .. if shooting form tripod !! Framing wise you want more room around the bird ... and check the histogram, I'm sure there were blinkies !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Peter - great advice above - make sure you have your over exposure blinkies turned on - if you do indeed get some them try the recovery slider whEN converting the RAW
Detail looks goo.
Keep em coming :)

[Peter Farrell]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I always shoot with the histogram displayed on my lcd. the previous shots looked too dark on my lcd and the histogram was far to the left, that is why I went to a slightly positive value. I reviewed this shot on the camera and the only 'blinkies were for a couple of dark areas, there were none on the white. However when I opened the image in ACR the whites showed as blown out. I pushed the recovery slider to 100 and all of the white areas recovered. the only blown area was in the yellow on the lower bill. I don't know why there were no blinkies on the lcd display when ACR showed the whites blown. I will look into this. Thanks again, Peter

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Peter. Blinkies on the left mean pure black and you very well might want to have pure black in an image! Now the visibility of details in dark areas is a concern, but the blown highlight indicators are far more important. If you are cranking the recovery slider in ACR all the way you have a problem, and you will get artifacts and clipped areas will be flat light gray-no details. Start with the exposure slider, drop it down, then go to the recovery slider. If you are shooting in direct sunlight(no clouds, mist, etc.) you will simply not be able to recover the clipped highlights, or only to a limited extent. Soft low contrast light makes recovery much more likely.
Note: high contrast light (otherwise known as harsh or hard light) can occur anytime of day, and because it is morning or afternoon does not mean the light will be less harsh. Clouds, mist, fog, smoke, dust, or anything else that diffuses the light is necessary. These may very well be more likely in the morning, and I feel this is why the idea persists that morning light is always "softer". Also early and late shooting make high contrast light much easier to deal with, since dark detail-less shadows can be hidden behind the subjects.
Critical focus points: since there is an area in front of and behind the AF focus point that will be in sharp focus (greater the smaller the aperture) sometimes focusing on the neck may actually be best. The problem here is that F5.6 is probably not going to cut it. If the goal is to get the entire bird in focus, focusing on the head will require a greater Fstop that necessary, since usable sharp focus areas will be in front of the bird and wasted. You will also, to compensate for the greater F stop, need to drop your shutter speed or increase ISO. Sometimes you have enough light to afford the overkill on F stop, but most of the time higher shutter speeds or lower ISOs have distinct advantages.
Now if you want to shoot F5.6, and want only the head in sharp focus, by all means focus on the head!
The problem with checking for blinkies with the A700 histogram is that the LCD histogram itself is so small, only maybe a 40% portion(perhaps even less) of the entire LCD area is available! regards~Bill