High Island Texas. Nest building season. The area was full of photographers.
I would like to get feedback in general
I used low tones to focus more on the bird. The greenery was very bright in the water.
Nikon D810
250 mm
1/2000
F5.6
ISO 200
LR editing. Cloned few leaves on the left hand side
Hi Marie, nice behavioral catch with the bird picking up a stick. Love the plumes coming off the back of the egret. The whites on the back of the bird look quite bright to me and probably a little blown.
My starting settings for birds with white plumage in bright to fairly bright sun are:
for action like birds in flight: ISO 400, f7.1, 1/3200s
for perched birds: ISO 400, f10, 1/1000s
I find it helpful to start with these settings and use blinkies to make adjustments from there. Hope this helps.
A lower shooting angle would also help if possible. This is still a pleasing image and a nice capture.
Thank you!
I like this for the delicate plumes and the action of picking up the stick.
I appreciate your feedback very much!
Looks like you had a great opportunity to photograph these beautiful birds.
The feeding action is green and the nice wispy plumage is a plus.
Things I’d address: The whites are over exposed. Maybe you have details in the RAW file. I’d pull down the highlights and see if that brings back some texture. Bring the whites down if needed beyond that, but it can go gray pretty fast. Dehaze in small amounts also helps with texture in whites.
I find the image way too tight in the frame. I’m sure there is a lot more to the story than having the bird full frame . I find this is a very common problem with avian and wildlife photography. It doesn’t have to be full frame to be compelling. You didn’t mention if this was a crop or not so maybe you have more room in the original.
Thank you so much for this in depth review. I cropped from the left. The environment was the same, an area of water, partly shaded and some greens, though less. This bird had left the main area where the rest were building nests, the busy activity. If was alone, searching for branches. I was above on a platform… very hard to isolate him from sorrounding branches.
I moved the highlight slide to the left, In my screen with LR only few highlights were in the original. Few whites that I balanced.
Thanks!
The bird is showing its plumage and feathers wonderfully, although the whites - as mentioned - are a bit blown. That said, the image has a feel to it as if the bird were under water, must be my mind playing tricks of course, but I like it when images put one on the wrong foot. The effect shows best in the thumbnail. Either way a nice image. Cheers, Hans
Hi Marie
Yes, the whites are overexposed and the framing is somewhat tight, but Hans is on to something here . The shot is a little dreamy and I like it.
Peter
