Repost: Low opacity cloning over bokeh line, darkened upper background, significant boost in brightness and contrast of the heron with additional dodging in the head and eye.
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was taken in Costa Rica this last February, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the processing as the background highlights and vegetation had that crunchy look that I don’t care for. Our camera club had a guest speaker Tuesday on photographing holiday lights and he was showing how he could affect the appearance of the out of focus lights using the LR lens blur feature. I decided to try it on this image and I’m pretty pleased with the difference from the original. I haven’t tried, but if it works in combination with masking it should be a really handy tool.
Specific Feedback
How does the bokeh look to you? Any opinions on the relative brightness of the heron and the background?
Technical Details
Sony A1, FE 200-600 + 1.4 TC @ 840 mm, monopod in boat, f/9, 1/1250, iso 800. Manual exposure, processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped from a horizontal original (a black oof bird on one side and a white oof bird on the other) to 3736x4840. Lots of tonality adjustments to prevent this from being a near silhouette. Taken February 23rd under pretty bright sun.
Critique Template
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I think you got some pretty good detail here, but the bird is really dark and I don’t know if there’s anything you can do about lightning up the bird. Some of the highlights in the background, especially the horizontal line be right behind the bird is a little distracting… But I think you had a good idea in blurring the background with Lightroom
I think you got an awesome shot of this Heron, I love the pose!
While keeping in mind that I’m still quite inexperienced in the world of Avian photography, I think you should do what you can to prevent the white line of bokeh. Whether that’s using the blur tool, or straight up Generative Removal in LR is up to you. I like the look of the rest of the bokeh in the image.
As for the brightness, I think keeping the Heron at its current brightness level would look fine, maybe brightening it a bit? I definitely think the background could be toned down just a little bit.
I took a crack at editing the picture you posted. (First time doing this, so please let me know if I need some help to!)
I used Generative AI to remove the bokeh line, and then used a quick LR mask to brighten the bird and then inverted it to darken the background.
Hi Dennis, really nice pose - love the raised foot and wing position. I agree on processing the BG further. I think Zach is on the right track and I like his repost.
Thanks, David and Allen. And thank you Zack for taking the effort to show what you were thinking. I’m liking the Bokeh line but wondering if I could do it in PS where I have layers and could control the opacity as I kind of like some of it showing. I’ll have to play with this one some more.
Oh what a display. Really good timing on your part. Nice to have a cooperative bird, too. The repost looks good - still bright and believable, but a bit more balance for our eyes. I especially like the wing tips in the water.
HI Dennis
A very nice recovery of this dancing Blue. I come in on some were in-between your rework and Zach post. The Botton line is Heron is putting on a great show.
Peter
