Night Heron (eye)

What do you think caused the "strange" colouration in the eye?

 

This capture was taken under heavy tree cover and shooting out towards

the water. It was overcast and my concern was to ensure the subject

was correctly exposed. I therefore used spot metering and spot

autofocus to try and minimise the brightness of the background. I

inadvertantly had the autoflash switched on (silly me) and it fired! The

camera was handheld.

 

I was able to get quite close, and probably should have removed the 2x,

it would have given me better light through the lens and the flash would

not have been forced to fire.

 

Having said all that, is the eye colouring a major distraction?

 

I would appreciate your thoughts here............

 

Best regards

Hi Grayham,

This is an excellent image , my friend !

You became immersed in the details of what you did , and the results are fine.

The flash provided very nice "fill light" and developed the colors well. While the flash is not necessary , a bit more processing skill would be required to obtain the same results.

A for being too close using the 2X, that it not the case here. You captured the bird with plenty of surrounding elements to make a nice shot. The focus was good, too.

The bird's eye has picked up the color tones from his body, and I find it quite attractive. I do not know what color the eye should be without a flash, but it does not make much difference. It is a nice shot, no matter what the eye coloration is.

If you do not like it, then it is a 5 second fix in Photoshop to change the eye to whatever color you like. This is strictly a personal preference.

Best Regards,  Mike

The unnatural look of the eye is caused by the flash. Depending on the color of the bird's eye, you can get some pretty strange color effects, especially since nite herons have large eyes. Good results can be gotten by positioning flash off center from camera. Having said that, I think nite herons red eyes are among the prettiest of bird eyes.

As Monte says, it is the bird equvalent of red eye, light reflected back from the pupil of the eye. Animals eyes will turn different colors. Handle it the same way you would red eye in a person with your red eye removal set to animal eyes.

The eye question has been answered, but my question is the ID of the little heron.  I have not seen a night heron this color, here in Fl at least they are grey and have  black backs, with white underparts and with startling red eyes; this looks more like a least bittern, possibly a young one or a female as it is lacking the black back of the adult?

Thanks for stopping by............ the Michael Morcombe Field guide to Australian Birds identifies this little heron as Rufous (Nankeen) Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus). The description given includes the "deep cinnamon wings and back together with the green patch before the eye that turns blue during courting. The true eye colour is a yellow rim with pure black iris and mention is made of the two long white feathers that grow from the back of the head............ this one here appears to be an adult male.

Thank you for your interest.

Regards

 

Guys..... thanks for resolving my queries and for your kind words about the image.

I have followed Gary's advice and corrected the "redeye" but now I'm not sure which one I like.

THanks for your interest.

Best regards

Again, beautiful color saturation on the bird.  Nice work..  but I still like the one before this better for the darker bg. but the position of the bird in the frame is better on this one.

For the sometimes unwanted effects of a flash I often shoot the same frame without the flash for reference and correcting.

A brief trip to layers and voila, yellow. LOL

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments. As I was visiting Louise in hospital on a daily basis, I went looking for it the day after taking this shot and shot images with and without flash. The comparison images are in my Heron folder.

Yesterday I was allowed the take Louise home, and although I had a brief look for it, he appeared to have moved on.

Best regards

........ great "restoration" work here. You got it spot on. I've yet to master Layers with any level of confidence (smiles).

Thanks for your time and interest.

Regards