I had the camera settings preloaded and managed to get close enough to fire off a few shots just as he/she flew off. Close is usually about 20 or 30 yards. And usually they fly directly away from wherever the human is. Just enough lighting and fortunate with the back lighting.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
What I like: Catching the full wingspan of the heron; The backlight/bounce light coming from the underside; Good detail showing from the feathers (thanks Topaz); The superhero pose.
Not so much or thinking about: The recovery detail from the originally dark background has a dull look; Uncropped…reposition?; Possibly remove the few white dots on the water.
Technical Details
Fuji X-T4 300mm (400mm non crop sensor) 1/1000 f7.1 ISO640
Processing: Lightroom/Photoshop then Topaz for noise reduction and sharpening
No cropping (yet)
Hello and welcome to NPN! There is plenty of opportunities for support and learning here.
I really like this photo…I see lots of herons in flight and love the detail you have in the bird and especially the colour in the water under it. The light is lovely and I don’t see it as dull at all. The dark in the top right corner is a bit distracting but this is still a lovely photo.
Thanks for posting…I appreciate your description of the scenario and your thoughtful self-critique. Hope you offer critiques to others too!
Hello James and welcome to NPN…
I’m not one of the extremely talented avian photogs here at NPN but I can appreciate their very fine work…
This is a unique flight perspective at least for me of this gorgeous heron. The angle of view, the lighting, and the stop action detail is truly wonderful…
Thanks for the feedback Robena. I had not focused any attention on the upper right dark spot. Maybe that’s what my brain was interpreting as dull color… appreciate the comments,
Thanks for the comments Keith. You helped me decide not to crop the photo at all. I was considering moving the heron forward slightly in the frame…probably overly detailed with that thought.
Hello James and welcome to NPN. Like other commenters, I like your photo a lot. The wing position, lighting, sharp eye and feather detail are all strong points. I wouldn’t crop at all as you have left an appropriate space for the bird to fly into. Nicely done
The details in the heron, the exposure, the glow in the beak and edges of the wings , tail and feet, the amount of ambient light on top of the heron, the swirl in the water under the left wing, the trailing waterdrops, the curling of the wing tips, the direction of flight, the amount of environmental space around the heron, the color of the water, the highlights and shadows…all work very well together to form a wonderful avian image that most any photographer would be very proud of
Having the settings preloaded resulted in success (along with your skill of course).
Personally, I wouldn’t remove any dots or crop.
Again, welcome aboard
Feel free to ask for anything including help with site navigation.
We’re all a friendly bunch that are eager to help each other.
Hi James, Welcome to NPN. Great first post. I like the pose and the light on the wings and bill. Good detail. Nice color of the water as well. If mine, I’d probably remove the white specks in the water; but no big deal. Agree with the thoughts on not cropping; the heron needs space to fly into.
Hi James, and welcome! An excellent first post! The detail in the bird is very nice, with interesting light. I agree with keeping this crop, for reasons given above. The darker area in the UR might be amenable to some lightening, but the rest of the BG looks fine to me. I would remove the water droplets trailing from its feet because they pull my eye out of the frame – at least the one right at the edge. I might remove the larger one in the BG, or do a low-opacity clone to dull it down just a bit.
