First Wildlife pic - Blue Heron

[F-StopBlues]

First attempt at any sort of wildlife photo. Tried to get one of it flying but the light was too low to avoid blur.

 

[EricD]

Nice job for your first attempt!! I like how you managed to capture the entire shadow as well. You might want to lighten up the bird a little, he seems a tad dark. For me Dark birds in low light I usually underexpose a bit to lighten up the bird.


Nice job all around...keep them coming!! :thumbup:

 

[HikinMike]

Congratulations! Took me a long time to finally capture one of those.

 

[icassell]

I agree that this is an excellent first attempt. From the positive side, the composition is wonderful and you got the bird's face in profile -- also a definite plus. Try lightening it and see how it looks, but shooting to the left side of the histogram may have made enough lightening impossible. Was this handheld? If so, and you are limited with a slower lens, consider using a tripod next time to be able to drop your shutter speed (although you would have missed those lovely ripples on the water) . Most importantly, keep shooting!

 

[F-StopBlues]

Thanks for the input. Yes it was a handheld shot because I didn't want to miss it trying to get my tripod out(and since I'm still new to it I don't have a fast enough lens, it was probably set at the max of 5.6 at 200mm). How do you pull the shot info out of the file? I have a RAW copy of it so I could certainly try to lighten it more if I had a good program for that (the stock Nikon viewNX I haven't figured out yet). Any recommendations?

 

[icassell]

200mm f/5.6 1/80sec ISO 400 (Jeffrey's Exif viewer)

I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about the NIKON software. I use CS4 and/or LR2. I'm at work, so I don't have it available to me at the moment, or I'd try it for you. Maybe someone else can jump in and give it a try. If you are able to lighten it, I think it could be an outstanding image.

I'm actually quite impressed that you were able to handhold it that well at 1/80 sec.

 

[F-StopBlues]

Wow, thank you.. that's amazing how much information is embedded. I really do need to upgrade to cs4, I have cs2 now and it doesn't handle raw images. (I did have something to rest my elbows on, that's the only reason 1/80th worked out, I'm not that steady :thumbsup

I'll work on it and see what I can get. Thanks again.

 

[F-StopBlues]

Ok, I lightened the picture but you lose all the detail in the water so I darkened that but put a layer mask on the Heron. I feel like it looks too unrealistic though so I'll keep playing.

First attempt at that.

 

[icassell]

Much better!

 

[Shocknawe]

Nice job for your first attempt!! I like how you managed to capture the entire shadow as well. You might want to lighten up the bird a little, he seems a tad dark. For me Dark birds in low light I usually underexpose a bit to lighten up the bird.


Nice job all around...keep them coming!! :thumbup:

+1

 

[Kethaneni]

Good job on the first attempt. The picture would have been even better if there was a little bit more water(dead space) in the top half of the frame. But, it's just me.

 

[USM IS]

I actually like it a little darker.....Mike

 

[F-StopBlues]

Good job on the first attempt. The picture would have been even better if there was a little bit more water(dead space) in the top half of the frame. But, it's just me.

I do have a picture with more water at the top but the heron was walking too fast and is a bit too blurred to bother with.. pretty upsetting

 

[PhotoXopher]

Love the edit, I can't wait until they make their way back here!