Sometimes a good crop can bring out interesting features of a subject.   Posted: 11/06/2024 19:15:10

First of all, great job on getting a sharp Great Blue Heron in flight! I love its wing position as well as the iridescent feathers. Roy's crop makes it a very creative image. Should be well received in your photo club challenge!   Posted: 11/09/2024 00:49:13

Sylvia, you did a really nice job of capturing the subject in flight. I have to ask, did you add a vignette of some type because when I enlarge the image the corners all appear a touch darker - perhaps it's my screen or PSA's resolution, don't know but it appears that way. I do a bit of judging and will tell you that IMO the subject's wing position is about perfect. Regarding the crop however, most judges that I know prefer to see the entire subject unless there's really something special going on with subject's beak or bill, e.g., an open bill or carrying material for its nest, or a fish to feed its young, etc. I can no longer see Roy's crop - it was there when I opened the image but suddenly it's gone - that's happened to me as well, probably a glitch in the system - but from what I remember, the right wing is too dominant when it's tightly cropped which loses one of the two biggest assets of the image, its graceful wing position. Just a thought   Posted: 11/10/2024 13:30:08

Sylvia, beautiful capture and the wing detail is wonderful. I especially like the golden highlights. I see some white around the edge of the wing and feet which can occur with sharpening. There are ways to eliminate that in Photoshop and probably in other applications. That would be the only thing I would correct. Let us know how you do!   Posted: 11/10/2024 14:45:08

Sylvia, the photo is a great job. Sharp and more place in the flight direction to give the bird space to fly. In my opinion the best crop. You have brighten the photo very much - the left wing is a little bit to dark. I assume, that you cannot brighten the wing particially without quality loss.
I don't see any params in your description. I always shoot pictures like that manually. To get enough color information in the subject, I increase the ISO to about 2500 upto 6400 and choose a shutter time of 1/2000 upto 1/8000 (if possible). You can reduce noise with Topaz for example.   Posted: 11/11/2024 08:04:57

Dear Sylvia. I tried to make a different crop. This way there is more space in front of the bird.   Posted: 11/16/2024 16:33:56

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your comments and advice!
I really appreciate it!   Posted: 11/21/2024 00:08:57