Overall very nice. Good detail in the bird and I like the oof BG. I might crop a little more off the top and right side. Maybe tone down the highlights in the head.
Peter
Joel, you got some really nice detail on this bird! That pink eye is dazzling and you got a nice HA - although a little bit of eye contact would have been even nicer.
It feels to me like this image was taken in some pretty harsh lighting. It seems a bit over exposed and a little under in the contrast. I'd look at lightening the shadow under his neck and then bringing the entire image down in the high tones. I downloaded the image, did a quick levels adjustment then changed the blend mode to multiply and the opacity of the layer to only 29%. It gave the dark tones more depth and cut some of the harshness from the lighting.
I'd also crop in a bit more - taking just a piece off the left side and then doing more of an 8x10 size frame, cutting off from the top and right as someone earlier suggested. That will help get rid of the really light/bright twigs in your BG and then you might try a bit of gaussian blur on the greenery to diffuse it's impact a bit more.
Overall, it's a very nice image but with some tweaks in PS I think you can raise it up another couple of notches.
I'm a big fan of portraits like this Joel. I love to see the detail in the head, eye, feathers. Agree with the comments on the crop. I experimented with this and got a good result with the eye more or less near the TL rule of thirds point.
The main issue with the image is the harsh lighting which you can do two things in the field to correct- 1. use a fill flash to soften the contrast or 2. avoid like the plague going out in the noon-day sun! After the fact, as Jules suggested, some processing may work to reduce the contrast (reverse s-curve?, shadows and highlights?).
HI Jules - softer light would have been preferable here - harsh light seems to be the main issue here.
As mentioned flash might of helped - personally I avoid shooting when the light is harsh.
Jules and John have it covered - looking forward to seeing a repost??
Thanks for the help with this one, I rented a 500mm f/4 for a trip out with James Shadle, it arrived the day before (at noon!) so I couldn't resist immediately taking it out. I found this guy by a pond near where I was staying and also processed it on a laptop which is new to me so.....you guys figured it out nicely, appreciate the help.
Tricolored Heron portrait
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