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Black-crowned N Heron
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Black-crowned N Heron

by Patrick O'Healy

Gallery: AvianPosted March 31, 2014114 views8 comments
March 29, 2014 El Dorado Park, Long Beach, California
This day was a first for me since I have never before gotten any decent shots of Black-crowned Night Herons. There were many of them fishing, and periodically flying by.

Nikon D4 Nikkor 600mm 1.4TC 850mm Manual 1/1250 f/6.3 ISO250 White balance sunny Taken on a tripod with a Wimberley Gimbal Processed in Lightroom, CS6, NIK and TK. This image was cropped minimally.

I learn a lot from your comments and am grateful for them.



Comments

8 comments
Comment posted by Robert Bunch on April 1, 2014 at 11:55 AM
Nice light. I like the way it shines through the back edge of the wing feathers giving them a translucent look. Also like that big redeye and you have pretty nice wing position. :toast:
Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments
Comment posted by Rick Cloran on April 1, 2014 at 5:32 PM
Nice light. The wing position is pleasing. the exposure looks good. The large image looks slightly over sharpened.
Registered on April 6, 2004, 119 Posts, 1989 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Ditch on April 1, 2014 at 6:04 PM
Nice flight position. I think focus was not on the head and sharpening didn't make it better.

I'm curious about your work flow using "Lightroom, CS6, NIK and TK." What steps do you perform in each application? What format (psd, tif, other) is the file in at the various stages?
Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments
Comment posted by Patrick O'Healy on April 1, 2014 at 6:12 PM
Richard,
My work flow is as follows, as taught to me by Keith Bauer:
1. Normal RAW adjustments as needed.
2. CS6 is used for most of the spectrum of adjustments we do in photoshop.
3. As a part of the work in CS6 I use the TK program to adjust the "lights" and "darks".
4. While NIK has a broad range of elements in it, I primarily use it to noise reduce and sharpen.

If you wish to know the work flow with all the adjustments in this photo let me know.
Registered on March 13, 2011, 326 Posts, 1679 Comments
Comment posted by Keith Bauer on April 1, 2014 at 8:20 PM
Nice flight position of the Black Crowned night heron. When I look at the larger version, it looks like the image wasn't sharp out of the camera. It was not way off, but not as sharp as it could have been. The eye / head appear to have had a pretty healthy dose of sharpening applied?
Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments
Comment posted by Nate Chappell on April 1, 2014 at 8:23 PM
Nice flight shot and light on the face here Patrick, I would crop some from the bottom to make it more rectangular. Regarding the techs there is no reason to be shooting the D4 at iso 250 for flight shots. It's noise free at iso 800 and a higher iso would have allowed you to stop down more - to F8 or so which probably would have helped with sharpness on the face. :toast:
Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on April 1, 2014 at 10:43 PM
Nice flight position and I like the light through the right wing, Patrick. I agree with Nate on the iso. I tend to keep mine toward the middle or upper end of the suitable range for the camera I'm using when trying for flight shots.

:toast:
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments
Comment posted by Ákos Lumnitzer on April 5, 2014 at 12:06 AM
Really lovely, and I love these angles of flying birds coming towards you, the photographer. Could probably snip some space from above and a little more (than above) from below.

as mentioned, a little too sharp. Love the red eye! Cool! :cool:
Registered on April 24, 2004, 25 Posts, 510 Comments