Nikon D500, F 8, ISO 1000, SS 1/1250
Kill shots are common at Mangalajodi Wetlands (India), This shot is of the moment when Heron just picked it from the water, to me that water drop adding to frame
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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Excellent capture and the water drop does help tell the story that the frog was just plucked out of the water. The heron stands out well from a nice background, though to me the image seems a bit flat or bright and you might try increasing the contrast and decrease the brightness and see what you think.
Love the action here and completely agree about the water drop adding interest. The light and background are also very nice.
Allen is right that the photo is a little bright. I’d drop the exposure some to get more detail in the whites and to make your darks a little darker. And I see some degradation in image quality. There isn’t as much detail in the feathers as there could be, and there is quite a bit of noise in the background. Was this a big crop? If you’ll tell us your post-processing routine, we could provide more feedback.
Very nice shot, Jitin, and the drop of water certainly does add to the image. You caught a great pose. I don’t know what software you’re using for post processing, but when I look at the heron’s plumage, it looks to me like there’s plenty of detail there-it’s just a bit washed out. I agree that reducing the brightness of the subject a bit would help. If you have software that lets you increase micro-contrast, I think it would really do a good job of bringing out the plumage textures. I use an old Topaz plug-in for Photoshop called Detail3. While it’s not part of their current packages, you can download it from their obsolete software site. Personally, I prefer their old offerings to the new AI products.
