BCNH-Simple Portrait

[WIlliam Maroldo]

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO1000~F6.3~1/500 sec~manual exposure~Hand Held~4-26-2010~Houston, Texas~CS4
Actually camera rested on my knee, would that still be hand held? Comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[Jeff Parker]

Looks good to me, nice smooth background. This guy let you get really close. Was it at Brazos Bend?

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks Jeff. I got even closer. Not Brazos Bend, but part of Addicks reservoir I guess. It is where Hwy 6 crosses Buffalo Bayou, in West Houston. There is a concrete embankment. If you can manage to sit at the top, without the birds at waters edge below noticing you, you can very slowly ease your way down(on your butt of course!) to get close. regards~Bill

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light, eye contact and composition. Did you use an average blur on the BG? The values are identical everywhere.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks Axel. It was very soft light, and I find that in order to get detail with such light you need to get close! Very observant you are about the background! Actually my plan was to use Topaz DeNoise 3 on the bottom of 2 layers and erase the background on the top layer. Although I have DeNoise 4, ver 3 has a super smooth preset that blurs and yet doesn't cause those large halos you find with Gausein and other standard blurs. The background was then fairly uniform, actually so uniform it occurred to me why not just make it the same color? What color exactly? The color of an area that is very difficult to mask. You see the little fluff at the front of the head? Thats where I picked the color. regards~Bill

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks for the explanation. It's great that you can get so close to these birds.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Well exposed with good detail and beautiful eye. Thanks for sharing William.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice head portrait with lots of detail in the feathers and bill. I see a cyan cast in the BG and light parts of the bill, easily corrected. TFS.

[denise ippolito]

Bill, Very nice composition and the sharp details look good. Great looking eye.

[Harshad Barve]

excellent compo and details here , eye is terrific
TFS

[Arthur Morris]

SH, whites, and head angle look great. The bird forgot to wash its bill:)