Black-Crowned Night-Heron

[Danny J Brown]

I photographed my first black-crowned night-heron this weekend at St. Louis' Forest Park.

Canon 40D; Canon 500/4; 1/125; f/4.0; ISO 400; Gitzo GT3530LS/Wimberley II

Self Critique: Bokeh starting to look a little scruffy and white on chest in the oven a few minutes after the timer went off.

[Randy Stout]

Danny:

Very nice pose, sharp, and I think the whites are very close, probably enough there to tweak a bit, nice light. In a perfect world, I would like to see the feet.

Cheers

Randy

[Hendri Venter]

I like the pose and the ruffled feathers. Very pleasing BG too. A very good first and a sure keeper Danny.

[Simon Bennett]

Good job with exposure and I like pose.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like this one, nice environment too. would selectively sharpen the head and beak more

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the soft light, angle and BG and agree on more sharpening.

[Ilija Dukovski]

I like this one very much. Nice plumage detail and light, if feet were visible would be even
better but the grass makes a nice base layer so it is OK this way too IMO.

[Stu Bowie]

Super comp and pose Danny, and I like the soft light and colours. I agree a little more sharpening around the head. I like the foliage running along the bottom edge of the frame.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Danny, loved the fluffy look. Soft light has helped a lot here. Head was probably in a motion that the low SS could not fully freeze. One suggestion is to warm it up a little bit. In my experience, none of the Canon preset White balances do a good job in such conditions. I usually use 'click wite balance' or 'color temp' and adjust to my liking. Was this one with daylight or auto WB?

[Nico Steenberg]

Great comp and colours. IMG is sharp and well exposed against a killer bg. Well done !

[Danny J Brown]

Danny, loved the fluffy look. Soft light has helped a lot here. Head was probably in a motion that the low SS could not fully freeze. One suggestion is to warm it up a little bit. In my experience, none of the Canon preset White balances do a good job in such conditions. I usually use 'click wite balance' or 'color temp' and adjust to my liking. Was this one with daylight or auto WB?

Hey KD - I use auto wb and then correct the temp in Canon DPP as needed but I usually don't realize it needs it.:) Thanks....I'll try a warm up on this one.

[Danny J Brown]

Thanks to everybody, especially Nico!;)