Blue Heron on His Perch

I take my Sony Rx100 when I am cycling. Just before I got home, I saw this GBH perched on a stump in a pond. I walked across a bridge to get this shot.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

All feedback is welcome and appreciated

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

With a closer crop, we can see the details in his flowing feathers better, but then lose his perch. I like seeing his perch, but welcome opinions. Any artistic feedback is appreciated.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
f/4.5, SS 1/160, ISO 400
72mm
Cropped about 50%

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A nice pose, Scott and good detail n the feathers. I don’t think you’d want to crop this any closer and, in fact, I think you could stand to put back a bit of room on the left to clear the end of the perch and give the heron a bit more breathing space. To my eye, there appears to be quite a blue color cast to the image. The heron looks much bluer than it should.

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Hi Scott,

Tweak down the cyan and blues a tad and your heron will have a more natural appearance. Otherwise, a nice heron photo…Jim

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Another vote for fixing the color cast of blue/cyan. I also think it is cropped too tight and gives the viewer a sense that it is cramped.

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I would not think too much about cropping in tight to see the fine feather details. They are very good and quite visible at this size. It is a very nice image of the heron in its environment on a nice perch. Just give the heron a bit more room and tone down the blues as suggested and it will be even better.

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Scott:

Here is a version of the image with a lot of the blue/cyan cast removed. I also softened the background reeds as they felt pretty crunchy. Also toned down the bright water and added just a bit of light to the heron. See what you think of this version.

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Hi Scott, my thoughts were pretty much the same as the others. I like the setting-nice perch, water, background grasses. I think the detail in the heron is good.

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Hi everyone. Thanks very much for the feedback. When I was reading the comments, I thought, "I did not enhance the colors at all. " I had increased the exposure on the background and decreased the highlights. before cropping from landscape to portrait. After seeing everyone agree that the blues were too saturated, I went back to the adjustment history. Sure enough, I had apparently hit the AI adjustment button before cropping. I was very surprised, but I appreciated the fact that others noticed and said it was too much.
As for the cropping, I did a simple crop to get 7:5 ratio, so it kept all the vertical space. I liked the little stump on the right side, which led to my choice of where to crop on the left. I could either expand it horizontally (no longer 7:5), or cut out the stump. I’m still a rookie at this, so my perspective was it’s better to keep standard ratios in cropping.

This is all good learning for me. Thanks to all of you who have helped with feedback.

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