Taken at Ding Darling Reserve on Sanibel Island, Florida. I thought the perch and position was interesting.
Canon 7D
100-400 @ 400 mm
1/5000
f5.6
ISO 400
Exp Comp +1.0
HH using car door as brace, cropped, levels, curves and selectively sharpened in CS5, NR applied to bg only.
Rachel, a few suggestions for you. First, head looks softer than the back feathers on top of the body. Because you went with a shallower DOF I think the head just missed out...you might try some sharpening there to see if you can bring that in a bit more.
Also, the shadows aren't totally working for me although I do like the crouched position of the bird. That harsh line between the top and bottom of the lowered wing is pretty sharp - you might be able to soften it a bit but it's going to end up introducing more noise.
Overall the image feels a little too dark for me as well. I can see it has potential to show "mood" but I want a little less harsh shadows on the wing, back tail area and neck of the bird and a different sun angle would have done that for you.
I do like the image overall but feel the sun was really playing against you here to give you the best possible image.
Agree that you're pushing the limits of the crop. Cutting the shutter speed down to 1/1000th so that you could have closed the aperture down significantly would have help. You might have even dropped the ISO to 200, but the 7D is generally excellent at ISO 400.
I love the BG, but wish that you had enough sharpness to crop a little more. Still, very nice shot.
This is a nice shot, Rachel. I don't have anything to add to the excellent thoughts others have provided, except to point out that this is a tricolored heron in breeding plumage, not a great blue.
Great Blue
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