A Pair of Herons Photo

Photographer’s Note

Another shot from my recent trip to the heron's nesting site near the Girl's Middle School.

I was close to the herons, but the longest lens I had was a 60mm Micro so I had to crop this shot heavily and apply USM in Photoshop.

There might be an un-natural white halo around the birds (courtesy of USM) which wasn't all that obvious in Photoshop, but seems to have sprung up after compression. Let me know if you can see it.

Elaine_Blath, Prisley, vichka_sun, elmec, MLINES has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

daddo (11643) 2006-05-17 5:35

Hello Will. Nice feel to this composition. Reminds me of Chinese scroll paintings- balanced, minimalist, serene. Could almost be an ink painting.Well done, Klaudio

Elaine_Blath (6170) 2006-05-17 5:39

Hi Will,

a fantastic monochromatic photo, really beautiful...only pity it´s not perfectly focused, but anyway, goes among my favourites...

Regards, Ivana

russte (0) 2006-05-17 6:04

Hi Will, it's a nice composition but I would have liked more contrast (I tried a workshop in PSE but, as you may have found, the heavily cropped image won't accept much more manipulation). In order to avoid haloing with USM, I sometimes use luminosity sharpening. After applying USM, in CS2, go to 'Fade USM' in the Edit menu, then scroll down the options to 'Luminosity', select and press OK. It usually works. As for the spots seen by Pris, I guess they are caused by dust on the sensor. Stephen

[3] +

Prisley (1277) 2006-05-17 6:27

Hi Will,

This is a nice pic' of Herons. Very elegant. It looks like a Sumi-e (japanese paintings of nature that usually are all in black & white).
The composition is good, so as the POV (you seem to be very close to them. Did you climb on that tree? ;o)
I also like that the white of the Herons stand out from the grey sky. Well done.
The only thing I see, that bothers me a little bit is the 2 grey shadow circles at the bottom of the pic. One on each side of the tree. It can be water drops if it was raining. I don't know. Can you see it? (regarding the white halo, I don't see it).

Cheers,
Pris.

vichka_sun (445) 2006-05-17 9:15

Hello, Will!
The branches of tree look like a hieroglyphes. Wonderfull, I like the composition, but I agree with Russte about contrast.
whole, I like this photo. Right b&w!
Regards
Vika

PeterC (2242) 2006-05-17 23:32

Will,
Very nice wildlife shot, a little blurr but as ou said its beacuse of the crop. Very well framed and i love those branches.
Cheers
Peter

david (3978) 2006-05-18 4:14

yes, the focus is a little soft ... but this is where zoom lenses come in handy. it'd be easier if you'd been able to go to 300mm zoom rather than the 60mm you used in this shot.

the two spots are definitely dirt ... either on the sensor or lens (someone needs to clean their camera!!) haha.

overall i think it's a good image. invest a few hundred dollars and get a zoom lens. they're amazingly useful (i'm a nikon user too, and i got a 70-300mm zoom for less than $200 in korea).

elmec (12194) 2006-05-19 12:31

Hello Will!
This is great simply composition!
I like the less colours there and grey tones!
The birgs are beautiful!
Great work!
Regards!

matri (621) 2006-06-28 7:04

hello will, Very well framed and retouch really looks chinese painting.

very nice look vertical line
matrideep

peco85 (919) 2006-07-04 6:13

Hello Will:)

Nice catch of these interesting birdies:) Good composition and a nice touch of black/white. But a bit out of focus maybe?
Well done!

PeCO

sebinho342 (18804) 2006-07-06 8:06

Hi will, a great dreaming mood picture, you could just remove noise with a software and this could be an excelllent picture !!
Even without that it's a good picture, i particularly like the simplicity of it :)
All my congratulations and keep on posting ! :)

Xplorator (667) 2006-07-12 4:25

Like a canvas...

prantik (1134) 2006-07-12 7:27

Looks like a minimalist Japanese painting. Very well done.

foxy (733) 2006-07-24 11:18

Hi,
Very well framed and shot. Great POV.
To me, it's more like a painting than a photo. Which makes it even more interesting.
Very good job you did there.
Thanks for sharing.

hay_kes (28596) 2006-08-28 6:27

Hi Will,
Great picture.Wonderful details, and composition.Very well done.
Greetings.

hAyAti

MLINES (11054) 2006-09-09 20:25

Hi Will good composition of these long legged herons in the tree. Good zoom and details to see. It is fun to photograph birds for sure. Murray.

banyanman (7739) 2006-10-13 9:20

Your composition is superb, Will - it reminds me of a Chinese pen and ink painting I would have been interested to see the original from which you had cropped this. You mentioned in one of your replies that you would post it to the workshop, but I can't see it. The image does lack a little sharpness as you pointed out yourself, and I don't see any halo effect around the birds, so maybe you could have been a little more aggressive with the USM. Stephen's tip about luminosity sharpening was interesting. I wish I had read that yesterday as I was having a lot of hassle getting the sharpening just right on an image that I've just posted that had also been heavily cropped. Cheers . . . David