Canon 7D 100-400mm lens, focal length 400mm
ISO 800, F5.6, SS 1/250 prgm:manual, one shot AF
I was in FL these last two weeks and had many wonderful visits to as many birding areas as possible. This was taken at Wakodahatchee, Boynton Beach. I met Sid Garige there for the day, a 1:1 workshop. The experience was fantastic and Sid is not only a terrific photographer he is a terrific teacher. I highly recommend his service and he is an active participant in the forums.
I really like the strategic guarding of the nest that this couple share. Any comments appreciated.
Good eye Ann! They don't look too happy for a happy couple! The juxtaposition of the two birds is of course great. It would have helped if they had their heads turned slightly towards you. With the brush on the left, I think a little less negative space on the right produces a more balanced image. I would also tone down the little white spot on the right.
I agree re. the negative space on the right and that it's a bit dark, but the mirrored position of the herons is great and I like the colours. I like this image.
Okay, I'd like to try the aforementioned suggestions; such as tone down the white spot and the quick mask on the eyes and bills. I'm a newbie here all round! I have PS5 and Lightroom. Would anyone offer me some guidance on these techniques? thanks, then I'll try a repost. Ann
Ann:
in Lightroom, use the adjustment brush (K); adjust the brush size small enough for the GBH eye and then the bill. Boost exposure to about 0.13, brightness to about 22. For the eye, also boost clarity and sharpness to about 40.
Change all the values up or down once brushed to see what works best for your image, but those values ought to be in the ballpark.
Love the pose, love the habitat, and the birds' expressions are great.
The background looks noisy to me, and there is an odd halo effect on the heads of both birds. The right one has it on its forehead, and the left bird shows it on from the tip of the bill, up the upper mandible, and all the way up to the crest of the head. Maybe those who are more experienced in PP can explain why something like this would show up.
I agree about the cropping on the right. This might be overkill, but cloning out a few of those little branches in the upper left corner might help balance the image as well.
Good suggestions have been made for this image already and I agree with all the fine tuning. My gosh but this is a wonderful image overall because the pose of the two is so rare and their glances are so intense. Love it, Ann!
I definitely think lightning up the birds a bit more would be a great way to pull them forward and separate them a bit more from the BG. I do see halos as well - might be aggressive sharpening. There seems to be a bit of a shadow on the beak to the right and that could be a slight movement or camera shake - using the clone tool to fade that out would be an easy fix.
I will share some Lightroom 3 advice I was given from a reviewer of one of my images on this site
When you export your image out of lightroom, set the dimensions to the max allowed here and your images will come out larger. the limit is 200k and the width to 1024 and the ht to 800....you probably know that since the first image was larger than the second...
Nesting Great Blue Herons
