Least Bittern in Last Light

Sweet. I might like the "extreme" version even more (the composition doctor shouldn't be intimidated by the patients! ) Did you focus the scanner near the eye, then repeat-sharpen to taste at 100/.2/0?

Like the spotlight effect here Gloria. Like the comp too.

Love the spotlighted Bittern! I also like the crop but having the bird slightly left would also work.

This is a really cool shot. I very much like the composition and crop.

As for sharpening, start with a 150, 0.3, 2 setting (don't use 0 for threshold as it sharpens grain) followed by 100, 0.2, 2 a couple of times. For an even better sharpening, fade the luminosity channel by 100% after each sharpening (Edit > Fade Sharpen > Luminosity) to eliminate any color artifacts induced by the sharpening.

What E.J. said and I like the composition.

I am on this twig and need to eat !!
The light is fading and hungry as can be!!

I also like the crop and the spotlight effect!!
Very nice!!! Congrats!!

Hi Gloria!

I see how your painting talents are shown in your photography. The ligh seems as if painted with a flashlight. Love the composition and the panoramic cropping.

Hi Gloria!
This really glows against that even, painterly, dark background. Great composition, as usual.

Gloria,
Nice to see you here and also neat shot. I am looking forward to seeing how the sharpening works for you.

Great to see you posting here Gloria. An interesting and well lit image I'd say. I noticed your file size is around 80k. You are allowed 120k, it might help to bring out more detail. Go to 'save for web' and use the quality slider to get the file size larger.

I like this composition, but am curious how it would look further to the left. I will admit, I would have never seen this. Nice job. Love the spot light. Glad to see you posting images again!

It works for me, I like the composition and lighting - but then I like dramatic lighting for a different shot.

Nice one!

Gloria,

Very nice shot. The lighting on the bittern is wonderful. I like the composition and the crop. Having the bird farther to the left would work well also.

Nice to see you here Gloria! Love the composition and the little spotlight effect. I'd love to see a repost with the sharpening suggestions applied as well.

Lovely image. E.J.s suggestions are on the mark.
I'm glad to see that you got the image you had envisioned.

Cliff Beittel wrote:Did you focus the scanner near the eye

Cliff has a good suggestion here.

I must say I've never actually used my scanner's semi-auto focussing feature (where you can select where it autofocusses), but on a slide like this it might be helpful. (I do have the "autofocus on scan" box checked, though, so the scanner does focus on each slide individually instead of just using some "average" focus setting.) I have had a couple of images which were sharp on the slide but very soft on the scan--beyond the help of USM. I just rescanned them, and the second time the scanner did a better job of focussing for some unknown reason, vastly improving the final results. I guess the scanner just gets confused every once in a while.

And nice shot, BTW!

-Paul