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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

White-faced Heron

White-faced Heron (Image ID 37501)
Photographed byNathan Watson on Mon 11th Nov, 2019 and uploaded on Thu 5th Dec, 2019 .
Resolution1400x998
Viewed326
ID37501
CommentHi, I’m a new member to this group and am really looking forward to utilising its resources to improve my photography and contribute to the galleries. I’ve only just taken up bird photography in the past month, and have been spending considerable time getting to know new equipment and how to use manual settings correctly. It’s also the first time I’ve ever shot in RAW and tried to do post processing of my images so I’d like to put a few shots up for critique so I can get constructive feedback on the images before I upload any to other galleries. This is one of the first images I shot on my Sigma Sports lens. It was taken at 600mm focal length at f/6.3, ISO 640 and 1/800 shutter speed. It was very early morning (5.43am) and the sun had just come over the horizon. It was a very opportunistic shot, I saw the heron on the log out of the corner of my eye while driving along the esplanade and managed to creep up on him by hiding behind some reeds and a small paperbark tree, shooting through a fork in the tree. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the light, but I think it’s come up ok. The frame was largely composed on the camera, but I’ve cropped in a bit to reduce the blank space to achieve better emphasis on the subject and leading lines of the log. In post processing I’ve used Lightroom Classic to open up the shadows across the image and reduced the contrast to address some of the darker areas. Using brushes I’ve carefully and subtly opened up the shaded side of the bird more, and on the highlights in the log to return some of the texture in the wood. I then adjusted the luminance and moderately sharpened the image. Looking forward to hearing what others think about the image. Thank you
EquipmentCanon EOS 5D MK III & Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Sports lens
LocationKalgan River inlet, Western Australia
Keywordsadult
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