Backlit Blue Heron

[Ronald Zigler]

I like the challenge of back lighting. Great Blue Herons in the park where this bird was photographed this summer have become quite accustomed to people, thus allowing me to take a number of photos. I regret that I did not get better shots from this opportunity. I feel I should have aimed for more depth of field. Perhaps I became too lost in admiring this early morning scene to think through all of the photographic options. The picture here is minimally cropped (ISO 125, f 4.5 @ 1/200) and minimally edited. I have been using an Olympus SP-590 UZ. It is not a bad camera, but its limitations have become increasingly difficult to ignore. I am leaning toward a Canon 60D, the 18-200mm and the 400 mm f 5.6 lens as an upgrade; but I will keep the Olympus as a backup camera.

[John Chardine]

A very nice image Ronald. I like the way the heron is framed by the veg. The light is beautiful. Ideally it would be better to find opportunities to photograph the subject without any habitat elements getting in the way like here. Last resort would be to clone out the offending branch but I prefer to not have it there to begin with.

[Kerry Perkins]

Ronald, backlighting only works in two situations - total silhouette and sufficient light on the subject that is not overwhelmed by the backlight. This image is somewhere in between and is not as strong as in those other two scenarios. To make the best possible image in this situation I would have used fill flash to put some light on the front of the bird. When the eye sees just a hint of detail, it wants to see more detail to complete the image. If there is no detail at all (silhouette), the eye assumes that it is not supposed to see any and accepts that it is seeing a silhouette. I agree with John's comments about the offending foliage, best to find the angle that excludes it from the front of the bird.

[Ronald Zigler]

Yes, I see your point. Thanks.