Great Blue Heron

This an interesting shot - for me. It has been difficult to get the focus

right when the flying bird has a busy background.

Comments??

I like this shot - flying birds are a bit tricky to capture.  The lighting on the feathers seems a bit over exposed.  But otherwise nice shot :)

-chris

Hello Marvin,

Very nice composition.  Good wing position.  This is overall a very nice image.  I am very familiar with the problem of background objects affecting the exposure on flight shots; i.e. I have more than a few out of focus BIF.  I assume you have AI focus tracking sensitivity set to slow, such that focus tends to stay on the bird and not intervening or background objects?  C.Fn III/1, AI Servo tracking sensitivity, should be set to Slow. This keeps the camera from jumping quickly to the background if the sensor falls off the subject momentarily.

I agree that the bird is a bit too light, by maybe half a stop.  The dark feathers are too light, and the whites around the head look hot.  This is easily addressed in post.  Background looks a bit noisy too.  I would assume this was a substantial crop?  The 7D has quite low noise at ISOs at or below 800.  Noise should also be easily addressed in post.  I think both would be somewhat addressed by darkening the image by 1/2 to 2/3 EV, but you should use the noise-control (smart sharpen) capability of Photoshop.

I see you use Photoshop CS3 - I suggest a quick-mask of the bird, and apply no sharpening and stronger noise control to the background, and sharpening and less noise control to the bird.

On the details page, I don't see information other than the fact that a 7D and an EF 100-400 IS L lens was used.  If more information (such as ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc.) were included, more suggestions could be offered for flight photography.

Despite these nitpicks, a very nice job.  I hope these tips are helpful to you in your flight photography.   Overall though, well done!

Best regards,

Dennis