The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This photo was captured quickly as I arrived at a heron rookery just as juvenile bald eagles were attacking it. Here a bird stares down at a nest below with an eagle sitting in it. It was windy and the rookery was in complete shade. I cannot begin to describe the sound of the distressed squawking of two dozen herons!
Specific Feedback
I know this is not the sharpest which is fine with me on this shot, as I love the textures in the bird, leaves and nest.
I would appreciate any thoughts about the colours and how to manage.
Technical Details
Canon R5 and RF 100-500 @500 mm
f11 1/3200 ISO 8000
Crop is about 50%
I shot using Auto WB. I have increased vibrance a bit in LR and toned down the yellow luminance a bit.
Very nice, with no complaints about sharpness from me. For my tastes, the WB could be warmed a bit. It’s so common to see “Blue Herons” presented as too blue. Even in the shade, my preference is to correct the WB to more like what our brains do. The nest sticks would be a good target for neutralizing a bit. Vibrance has probably favored the blues. I hope the eagles didn’t do too much damage.
What a cool capture even if the circumstances were a bit rough - hope not too many chicks got eaten. I like the pose and the blowing tree and so the sharpness you got is pretty good considering! Diane has a good idea to warm the white balance a bit, but I’m also seeing some odd blue blotches in the leaves and tree behind the leaves that just looks weird. At first I thought one was a feather stuck on the branch, but no, it’s a leaf and it should be green. Not sure if you have the latest version of Lr, but if so, I’d try running a denoise AI operation and see if it knocks that back. The good thing is that it preserves detail pretty well and so that will be a benefit, too. A dynamic pose of a very vigilant parent!
Hi, Robena. First of all, what a nice capture. Very dynamic with the wind blown feathers and leaves. I hope the eagles didn’t do too much damage, but that’s nature. I, too thought you might cut back on the vibrance and maybe play with the blue color balance. The sticks in the nest look to me like they have a heavy blue tinge as do some of the leaves. Nothing major; just play around with it a bit. It’s a really nice image that’s worth some time and effort.
Thank you @Diane_Miller@linda_mellor and @terryb for you thoughts. I can see now I rely too much on the Auto WB in camera and “As shot” in LR. I find greens the hardest to adjust properly and didn’t take the time to try and mask the subject. I also cannot figure out the blue blotches Kristen noticed…I think it is something to do with using the healing tool to hide some holes in the foliage.
If anyone has some resources to recommend for learning the fine-tuning of colour in LR I would appreciate them.
Thank you @Ronald_Murphy. Good point…I often recommend changing aspect ratios to others but rarely do it myself. I need to consider portrait cropping more often!
Oh, this is such a great environmental portrait and a situation you don’t see too often! If I could give you one thought it would be to perhaps think of how it would present with more of the sides cropped off? I don’t know that all that extra foliage is adding to the image and it will allow you to center everything.
