Heron: Playing with Lens Effects plug-in

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

_DSC8640-r1-lens

D700
300mm f/2.8G VR II with TC-20E III
600mm
ISO 500 (Auto)
f/8 at 1/2000s
Aperture Priority mode
Matrix Metering
0 EV
AF-C, Dynamic 9 points
Auto white balance
Tripod

Cropped from 4256x2832 to 2560x1776

Blurring the background and foreground, set white/black point, add contrast, NR and sharpen.

Trying the new Topaz plug-in, the Lens Effects. I was playing with the selective blurring using the depth maps. What do you think?
I was on the bridge taking this picture so the angle is high up, wish I could get lower. However I got a nice image to play around with the new plug-in.

All comments and suggestions are welcome.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Here is the link to image without blurring the background and foreground.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunnj2/5699607975/sizes/l/in/photostream/

[John Chardine]

I like the result. The Lens Effects effects (!) seem pretty subtle and that's probably a good thing. The high angle doesn't seem to matter much here. The focus point seems to be the upper breast which is leaving the eye and bill a little OOF. Perhaps another round of sharpening, especially just on the eye would work.

What species of heron is it? It looks spectacular.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Thanaboon, good application of the new filter! I just got this one too but haven't had time to play with it much. It does a great job of simulating a very shallow DOF.

You already mentioned the high shooting angle and I think the other main thing to discuss is the sun, which is high in the sky and making the light very harsh. You handled the exposure well but the whites are a bit on the toasty side without being blown. I'm not sure if I agree with your decision to add contrast to the image, as the lighting already made the image pretty contrasty. I would probably have gone the other way with contrast on this one. Nice bird, place well in the frame, and a good head angle. Softer light and a lower angle would help this subject a lot!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

I believed this is Java Pond Heron.

Here is the less contrast, more sharpen on the face and less on the body version. Thank you for all the comments, really appreciated.

_DSC8640-r2-web