Great Blue Heron (Page 2): 5 step pseudo processed in Photomatix, with blue adjusted to 50, and green reduced to -42 to be more complimentary. Detail enhanced with Topaz detail 3 Noise...

SoHillGuy Loc: Washington

5 step pseudo processed in Photomatix, with blue adjusted to 50, and green reduced to -42 to be more complimentary.

Detail enhanced with Topaz detail 3

Noise reduced with LR.

(Download)

lloydl2 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

Here is my shot at it. Done in Lightroom. Warmed up the white balance a bit, pulled the highlights up did some relighting, sharpening and slightly blurred the background...

Blue Heron redux

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

lloydl2 wrote:

Here is my shot at it. Done in Lightroom. Warmed up the white balance a bit, pulled the highlights up did some relighting, sharpening and slightly blurred the background...

The bird looks good but the background does not.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

Shakey wrote:

Just to be different, I got rid of the black stuff above the heron's head. Boosted brightness and contrast, levels a tad, and increased the blue slightly with the blue channel in Curves. Oh yeah, I used GIMP.

Sorry about not getting back sooner to everybody but my wife and I went to the Smokies today to view the autumn colors. Love what you did to the background by removing the black. I would never thought of that. Thanks for all your work and comments.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

abc1234 wrote:

I agree with Bob about the LR/PS bundle but only b... (show quote)

Thank you for looking and comments. I will be investigating LR/PS soon. Also I always try to improve my techniquice.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

rborud wrote:

MTG44
See if this pleases you.
RBorud

Thanks for taking the time to work on my photo .It makes me want to learn PP.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

Linda From Maine wrote:

Another free editor to try is Picasa by Google. I clicked auto-contrast which made a big difference, then slightly lightened and increased highlights. 30-second fix :)

http://picasa.google.com

Linda thanks for taking the time to work on the shot . You did a wonderful job. Looks I have a lot to learn.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

SoHillGuy wrote:

5 step pseudo processed in Photomatix, with blue adjusted to 50, and green reduced to -42 to be more complimentary.

Detail enhanced with Topaz detail 3

Noise reduced with LR.

Thank you for looking and adjusting my photo. I think it looks great.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

lloydl2 wrote:

Here is my shot at it. Done in Lightroom. Warmed up the white balance a bit, pulled the highlights up did some relighting, sharpening and slightly blurred the background...

Thanks for your help in making my stuff look better.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

artBob wrote:

Your shot, I think, just needs to be corrected for color and exposure . . .

Unfortunately, you have turned a Great Blue heron into a Great Gray heron, and the blue water (reflected sky) into tan water. You did not correct the colors; you changes the colors.

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Nikonian72 wrote:

Unfortunately, you have turned a Great Blue heron into a Great Gray heron, and the blue water (reflected sky) into tan water. You did not correct the colors; you changes the colors.

Not to get into a personal argument, but there is a bigger question here. Each of us who worked on the shot had a personal assumption. I know herons, and that they are not very blue, so (and this is the important part) when the software balanced the color, it came up like a low-sun shot, the heron and other areas shifted warm, the grass believable. Good enough for me.

Others seem to think more "blue."

Do we trust the "objective" knowledge of the software or our perceptions is the big question. I think both, and that's why photography is an art. (I did not accept the exposure correction because it looked too washed out to my eyes for example.)

By the way, you might want to google "great blue heron," to see how blue it is.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

artBob, only Lloyd and you knew what you were doing regarding white balance and you are not going to convince anyone else otherwise. I have never seen a blue heron but I can tell from all the other versions that no one dealt with the color balance properly. Lloyd got it better than you did but messed up the background. Both of you salvaged an otherwise underexposed shot with the wrong color balance.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

artBob wrote:

By the way, you might want to google "great blue heron," to see how blue it is.

http://www.inkart.net/animals/images/large/great_blue_heron.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/color-gallery/large/3060/Great_Blue_Heron_Flying.jpg?1302922841
http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8151/6981174456_9b712f7b96_z.jpg
http://www.jimcoda.com/data/photos/611_1_o1a4804_great_blue_heron_venice_rookery_florida.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vSMjeVMkBdo/TMZjAzvygoI/AAAAAAAAA9w/uztPZV2Fw2U/s1600/_DSC0046%5B114%5Drb+%28Great+Blue+Heron%29.jpg

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Nikonian72 wrote:

http://www.inkart.net/animals/images/large/great_blue_heron.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/color-gallery/large/3060/Great_Blue_Heron_Flying.jpg?1302922841
http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8151/6981174456_9b712f7b96_z.jpg
http://www.jimcoda.com/data/photos/611_1_o1a4804_great_blue_heron_venice_rookery_florida.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vSMjeVMkBdo/TMZjAzvygoI/AAAAAAAAA9w/uztPZV2Fw2U/s1600/_DSC0046%5B114%5Drb+%28Great+Blue+Heron%29.jpg

Wow, this must be important to you, and a black and white thing (pardon the allusion). You have to work hard to make a false statement appear true. Here are the first 20 images in Google (2 of the images are the same). 3/20 are blue. Faith is an interesting thing.

(Download)

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

artBob wrote:

Wow, this must be important to you, and a black and white thing (pardon the allusion). You have to work hard to make a false statement appear true. Here are the first 20 images in Google (2 of the images are the same). 3/20 are blue. Faith is an interesting thing.

Hey guys let me give you a little history about that day. I was at Sanford Wetlands with my daughter and another UHH photographer ,that I corresponded with on this forum and arranged to meet us there, and it was a bright overcast day late afternoon . We were walking down the road looking around for a opportunity to shot when we came across the GBH perched in a tree and all us commented on how blue he was. He then tensed to take off and that gave me time to ready my self to begin shooting. Well it happened that everything on my part went well and I was able to get a series of him taking off and flying right in front of me and landing. It was a great experience for me. Anyway I don't know if it was the lighting conditions or what he ate the day before but he was that blue. When I figure out how to post the series of shots I will post them. Also I did no PP before I posted the photo. Thanks for all your help it is very rewarding that you all take your time help me.