Great Blue Heron (Page 2): Better but you can see the repeating clone pattern. What do you think you could have done to have avoided that?

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

MyPharo wrote:

OOPS corrected .

Better but you can see the repeating clone pattern. What do you think you could have done to have avoided that?

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Good shot! You were lucky to get so close. These guys have their favorite spots. I've found one three mornings in a row at the same place. You should be able to tweak the shot in your computer. I'd try slightly darkening or blurring the background. Sharpen only the bird. This may draw the viewer's eye to the heron. Don't compromise good composition with extreme cropping.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Addressing your question about keeping the water darker: if I had time, I would have set exposure compensation to -0.3 or -0.7. This would have darkened the background and still kept a nice exposure for the lighter bird.

MtnMan Loc: ID

abc1234 wrote:

Better but you can see the repeating clone pattern. What do you think you could have done to have avoided that?

I doubt many would notice that. You see it now because that is where your attention is focused. Most would focus on the bird.

A perfectionist could use a brush to blur or burn or clone to eliminate the most noticeable repeating blade. While at it similar treatment might work for the branches going through the head.

Nice detail in the feathers!

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

MtnMan wrote:

I doubt many would notice that. You see it now because that is where your attention is focused. Most would focus on the bird.

A perfectionist could use a brush to blur or burn or clone to eliminate the most noticeable repeating blade. While at it similar treatment might work for the branches going through the head.

Nice detail in the feathers!

The problem appeared in the origin edit and the poster edited the edit. Check out the first one. Otherwise, I would not have noticed the second one. I do not mind cloning: just do not get caught!

MtnMan Loc: ID

abc1234 wrote:

The problem appeared in the origin edit and the poster edited the edit. Check out the first one. Otherwise, I would not have noticed the second one. I do not mind cloning: just do not get caught!

Yes, I saw both. The fix was good and I also noticed the repetitive grass blade. I was just observing if anyone hadn't been alerted to look there they would be unlikely to notice it.

Dlevon Loc: New Jersey

MyPharo wrote:

OOPS corrected .

Much better! :thumbup: but still believe that if you have to do that much corrective work, then too much was wrong in the original. I would probably trash my picture file if I had to do that much to it! Most the time I only use a little contrast, a little sharpening, and possibly some crop, but as a last resort.

Regis Loc: Coeur d' Alene, Idaho

hb3 wrote:

Worked with it a bit in post and cropped some of the water on the left....hope you don't mind...nice capture... :thumbup:

I like what you did here.

Bozsik Loc: Orangevale, California

happy sailor wrote:

This fellow let me get pretty close, was using a Canon 6d with a 24-105 lens. The water looks a little too bright for my liking and takes away from the bird, this is cropped a fair bit. Any suggestions either for when shooting to keep the water a little darker or for a fix in post. I had just come out of the swamp and had taken my polarizing filter off about 15 minutes earlier as I was loosing too much light in the swamp.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Hope you don't mind the rework. I found the bright area less distracting than the very busy background. I removed some of the opposing lines that tended to pull my eye from the subject. Most of the highlighted area was removed with a quick crop. This could look better if I spent more time on it, but I thank you for the opportunity to help if I can.

You could even soften the background some as well.

Almost forgot, nice shot, by the way.

MyPharo Loc: New Jersey

I made a fast fix of that photo, about 10 min . Had it been MY photo and I wanted to save it . I would have spent more time on it .. to make it perfect .. My quick fix / alterations whree made to show the Idea and altered vision that is could be, not to fix it totally. I normally do a complete fix but was strapped for time with the holiday and all .

abc1234 wrote:

Better but you can see the repeating clone pattern. What do you think you could have done to have avoided that?

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

Thanks very much for your rework, all the different efforts have been really appreciated and I will be playing much more with the post processing of this one and a couple of others that I got the same day, hoping one of them with make a great 16 by 20 for the wall in our home. Have a great weekend.

Bozsik wrote:

Hope you don't mind the rework. I found the bright area less distracting than the very busy background. I removed some of the opposing lines that tended to pull my eye from the subject. Most of the highlighted area was removed with a quick crop. This could look better if I spent more time on it, but I thank you for the opportunity to help if I can.

You could even soften the background some as well.

Almost forgot, nice shot, by the way.

icke

Hallo Happy Sailor...Quite interesting how individuals view the original and apply different adjustments... if it was my pic I would go a little further and apply some painting adjustments but the majority on this site lean towards being photo purists ( I think)... so my suggestion for your original is to treat it as if it was a raw file (in photoshop) go to "file" "open as" change the extension to "Camera Raw" and open ...have fun :{)

Bozsik Loc: Orangevale, California

happy sailor wrote:

Thanks very much for your rework, all the different efforts have been really appreciated and I will be playing much more with the post processing of this one and a couple of others that I got the same day, hoping one of them with make a great 16 by 20 for the wall in our home. Have a great weekend.

You are welcome. Just keep working at it. You will get one soon enough.

Dave_TX

Try working your way lower down the bank. Standing and looking down at your subject produces a viewing angle that is not nearly as interesting as getting down to your subject's eye level or even below. That said, be aware of your surroundings. Where I shoot my herons I need to keep the eyes on the back of my head peeled for alligators and cottonmouths.

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

For what it's worth on the BIF shots: I try to look at all of these that come rolling through and a lot of them are tack sharp & nicely composed like this one, but for me, the canvas is wrong. In this case the herons head is doing battle with the dead branches behind it & just doesn't stand out well. So what could be a truly excellent shot, becomes just a close call.