Tricolored Heron

Beautiful view of the TCH in breeding plumage. It seems a tad over-sharpened in the large view, with sharpening halo on the legs and left lower wing edge. Easily cured, if you wish. This held up well for an almost 25% of frame.

Hi Raoul:

A nice bird, nice pose and scene.  All of it works well.  Hopefully you have another image from the series without the nictating membrane covering half of the eye.
 

Philip,

You are correct, this is over-sharpened.  This is from a collection of shots taken right after I started using Lightroom, and like a kid with a new toy, everything was over-sharpened.  I thought I had corrected most, but it looks like some are still pushed too far.  Thanks.

Keith,

Nictitating membranes are my curse; this one completely escaped me!  In one session shooting Spoonbills a year ago, all but one frame had the membrane covering the eye--only theirs is completely opaque.  Sadly, every other frame of this bird was deleted because of a horrible head position.  Thanks for the keen eye.

 

Sharpening looks fine from here. Nice pose and habitat, and beautiful bird. 
The nictitating membrane bothers me a bit - a bright, clear eye always anchors the image for me. 
Sandy

If people are bothered by nictating membranes you can always call it behavioral shot. They do that don't they. That's why their vision so good because they protect it. Anyhow I agree that the images over sharpening but I like to see what you got even though you're playing with your toy at the time.  We have plenty of herons here in the Pacific Northwest but I am unaware if there are any Tricolored Herons. We have American Bitterns, Great Blue Herons, and Green Herons, occasional Great Egrets and occasional Cattle Egrets. 

A nice view of this beauty in breeding plumage Raoul, I agree that having the membrane up isn't ideal, I would also run a bit of noise reduction on the background, this shot has a nice color palette.

A striking pose and lighting, Raoul, and I don't mind the bit of vegetation in front.  The plumage on the face has a slightly smeary look with some sharp elements in it that look like an attempt to sharpen an area that wasn't quite sharp to begin with.  Sometimes the same effect comes with a combination of noise reduction and sharpening,  which is one reason why a lot of people never use noise reduction on the bird itself.  It would be interesting to see the same crop without significant processing to see what you started with.