Heron portrait

Even though it's a close portrait shot Sandy, this probably belongs in the Avian Gallery.
Great details, love that eye.. And thanx for the LP BTW
PS: Don't get me wrong, not telling you to move it, it's up the moderator of course. But the obvious place is avian. That's all I'm sayin' One last point Sandy. I would back off on the saturation some, colors look a bit unnatural to me.

Howard, I guess I need to understand the posting criteria for this particular forum. I know it's Macro/Closeup, and I guess I am not sure where the line is drawn in closeup. I just love those eye shots!

Scott - I will let the moderator decide where this belongs but love the focus square on the eye with a lot of feather details. Very good for a handheld shot, I'd say. The blue sky also works in your favour here.

Thanks Ram, the whole was a great contrast between the bird's coloration, the eye and the sky - I was very pleased with the result. I've got some even better eye shots, but just liked the overall feel of this one. I'd love to get some guidance from the moderator in regards to "close-up." Frankly, I was hoping that this shot would be okay in this forum in that I have so many avian shots that I would love to share.

I do understand what you are saying Howard. I didn't recall enhancing the saturation at all on this one, but when I checked, I did in fact tweak it slightly. Here is the shot exactly as it came out of the camera with no saturation enhancement. Just a bit different.

First, Sandy, with regard to the gallery where this image should be posted, the fact is that we don't get many avian images here, at least that aren't images that zero in on the eye, feathers, etc. Because this is a portrait of a large bird, it probably better belongs in the avian gallery, but because we give posters discretion and latitude regarding where to post, and the portrait is tight with the prominent eye, I'll leave it here unless you tell me you want it moved to avian. As for the image, I applaud the excellent detail and the way you captured the amazing red eye against the blue sky.

Scott, I appreciate your comments and allowing me to keep it here. I am totally fascinated my Macro photography, but have had little chance to do much. Conversely, most of what I have done since I got my DSLR a few months ago has been Avian hence I have quite a few things I am anxious to post and by leaving it here, it gives me the opportunity to post another shot in the avian photo group.

So then we can compare the 'out of the camera' look, and your posted image Mr. Scott.
In nature photography, color saturation is one of the most basic corrections you can make.
Everyone enhances the color a bit in PS. The key is knowing when to stop..

Howard, certainly getting suggestions from experienced photographers such as yourself assists me in both the photographic and PP modes. It's interesting that sometimes certain thought processes just don't happen until someone makes a comment hence giving the photographer additional food for thought and better tools. I have learned a lot in a very short time on this forum!

Fabulous pose and bg color. This a great.

Thanks Marylynne!

Great "portrait" of this heron. The eye really grabs my attention and the clear blue sky background helps the eye stand out. If you're using an Adobe product for your processing, the software automatically increases saturation as you darken things. I routinely find this to be a problem as I darken images or parts of images.

Thanks Mark, although I do have PSE!!, this shot took virtually no processing and for the tiny bit that I did, it was in iPhoto, where on the original I did add a slight amount of saturation, but in the second example, I went back and set it back to zero saturation added.