Three photos, cropped and adjusted (shadows/highlights and exposure) individually. Narrow white border was added to the sides of each. The three images were combined in a fourth file.
Processing on the full triptych:
Neat Image, Levels, Hue/Sat. (by color), Slight High Pass/Soft Light 50% opacity (for sharpening), some dodging and burning, added border, reduced size, slight smart sharpen, saved for web.
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Thanks for the comments. Several people thought the order of the shots should be reversed. This is where being the photographer can put you at a disadvantage. Since the movement of this bird was from right to left as I was taking the shots (rising out of the water, moving to a new location, and plunging for a fish), it never occurred to me that the viewers would like to see it from left to right. Swapping the images doesn't work, but Larryslights suggested flipping the whole triptych, and that does work. Also thanks to Mist for pointing out that I may be over-reaching my camera's capabilities -- a fact I have been trying to ignore.
Statistics
Place: 137 out of 244 Avg (all users): 5.6995 Avg (commenters): 6.2857 Avg (participants): 5.5938 Avg (non-participants): 5.7863 Views since voting: 1009 Views during voting: 369 Votes: 213 Comments: 14 Favorites: 1 (view)
very pretty capture of the bird. the only thing I don't understand is the order of arrangement - I am one of those people who is always trying to put things in chronological order so i am sure my pic would have looked jumbled lol
This made me smile, mostly because these guys can be very graceful indeed, yet in the one frame his landing looks a bit clumsy. Nice series of shots, though maybe try them #3, #2, #1 - that seems to be a more natural progression.
I think these three are shots that would have benefited from just a slightly longer lens, the birds are just aching for a tiny bit more clarity and detail that demands a stronger zoom. You've probably tried to out-shoot what your camera can do ;)
Nice capture but the pics seem a bit fussy with too much background interference - The middle image is very nice and would make a great stand alone shot.
I dont like the heron in the first photo of the series of three, the other two are sooo elegant and the first one is sooo clumsy. If is had of had a better pose this photo whoudl have gotten an even higher score form me. Otherwise a beautiful triptych.
I like that you have the photos in a directional order, but i think that it would be more effecting if the whole thing were flipped vertically, so that the heron flys from left to right. Since the eye 9or at least my eye) moves left to right, this just seems confusing. Otherwise, each photo is very nice and sharp. Herons are a hard capture. They always seem to know the camera is out and go away.
Well done - it seems though, and only in my opinion, that the left and right frames should be switched and maybe a tighter crop to see more of the bird which is the subject.
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