speeding on paint branch
by manishk

Comment by graphicfunk:
Very well done! Congratulations on your top 20 finish.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by manishk:
Thanks Ricky and Tim. Ricky, I will try your suggestion on the USM. I did use Shadow/Highlights to reduce the highlights in this image. But the log was just too bright. Luckily, I did not over-expose this image.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by Prism:
I think this shot meets the challenge very well. For the challenge, I know you couldn't spot edit the bark, but now you might want to try darkening some of the brighter highlights on the log to put more emphasis on the bird. For sharpening, you might want to try having the threshold at 0 when doing your unsharp mask. I like your overall composition and the colours are great.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by manishk:
Thanks every one for wonderful comments. Only thing I don't agree with is the *not meeting the challenge* thoughts. There are many comments about this being too sharp. I did USM with radius=1, strength = 100% and threshold=10 on an image of size 4??X620. I really need to learn how to "sharpen/not to sharpen" my images.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by atupdate:
This shot is under-rated. Those that gave a low score because it wasn't a beach scene didn't read the challenge close enough. The composition, dof, and colors are wonderful and I gave this a 7. I would have scored it higher but it looks a little over sharpened imho.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by jah_luv:
Great job! A very pretty photo, great technical merit. There are a couple of things that made me not vote too high for this one though.

First is that the business of the bark on the tree, and the business of the bird's plummage make this a bit TOO busy overall to enjoy the quality of either the bird or the log.

Secondly, a water shot, or even a shoreline shot, does not always mean 'beach' in my opinion. And meeting the challenge, to me, is the first and most important thing, if that isn't done, then anything else is unimportant. Doesn't mean it's not a beautiful and creative shot, because in this case, it absolutely is! I do love it! I went back and forth on how to score your pic, but I do vote low for those that I don't think meet the challenge, so to be consistant, I am voting this lower than I want for the reasons stated above.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by whitewolf:
Nice photo!

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by vtruan:
a bit oversharpened to me, but nice green heron anyway

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by Djabordjabor:
Very good photo but somehow I don't think it fits very well in this challenge.

Green Heron
by manishk

Comment by Balko:
0-2 meets challenge = 2
0-3 technical merit = 3
0-3 creativity = 3
0-2 biased wow factor = 0
Total = 8