Blue Heron

[Abiciriderback]

This guy sat there for the longest time while I shot away. 2 pictures one cropped and one with reflection. Any thoughts, input, feedback on how to improve this pictures is apprecitated

Ray Still

[AgingEyes]

My $0.02:

The photos do not look sharp on my monitor. There're also some hot spots on the bird. And, if you're not against post-processing, I would suggest cleaning up the background with clone stamp tool or the like, and do some sharpening to see if it'd help (I'm not sure it would though). If you want to crop, I would suggest keeping the feet in the final image. The second one with the reflection can use some more room at the top. Another suggestion is not to keep the reflection at all.

[Loupey]

Image 1 - the image doesn't look right on my monitor. The plane of focus cuts across the shoulders and raised foot but the head/crest looks too soft - yet the eye looks like it was selectively sharpened. The bill is too much OOF for my tastes. I agree with AE about leaving the foot in the cropped version.

Image 2 - the reflection isn't bold enough to leave it in the shot. Generally you need a really calm day and clean water to have a strong, clear reflection that you can use.


Lastly, always watch your backgrounds. Keep distractions (like the two stalks coming out of his head) from intersecting key parts of the subject.