Breeding Great Egret Pair- St Augustine, FL

[Shawn Marques]

I was able to get numerous images of this great egret pair with nice intimate poses. The bg was naturally black but it was enhanced. I would like opinions on this black bkg- is it becoming or overdone? Is the lack of separation between the two birds a good or bad thing here? I look forward to your comments. Thanks for looking!

Canon 40D, Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM
1/1600s @ f/6.3, ISO 320
Gitzo Carbon Fiber Tripod, Wimberley head
Taken in late afternoon

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Love the interaction here Shawn and the beautiful mating colors. It appears on my monitor to be a little over sharpened. The exposure is good and I like the fact that you were able to capture eye contact with both egrets.. Thanks for sharing !

[Grace Scalzo]

Lovely interaction of these two. Intimate, and tender feeling.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great interaction, breeding plumage and setting. I agree that it looks a bit oversharpened and if you have I would give it a bit more space. Why is the BG completely black?

[Dan O'Leary]

I really enjoy this. As others have commented, the interaction is great, as is the pose of both birds. The black background makes it for me. How did you achieve that?

[Joe Senzatimore]

Whatever you did to the BG works as this is not a location that yields good BG's often.

[Shawn Marques]

Great interaction, breeding plumage and setting. I agree that it looks a bit oversharpened and if you have I would give it a bit more space. Why is the BG completely black?

Hi Axel. Thanks for your input- I couldn't decide if the crop was too tight or not and I agree that the sharpening was a little heavy handed. The original image naturally had a mostly black background, with some areas of slight variations in places I found distracting. Working the bg, the distracting glowy areas of color were desaturated and then the bg was adjusted darker with a selective color layer mask. Other spots were cloned out. I don't know if this look is for everyone, but I liked the drama of the b&w together. I don't get images with this kind of effect very often. Do you think maybe it was overdone? Thanks again for stopping by!

[Shawn Marques]

I really enjoy this. As others have commented, the interaction is great, as is the pose of both birds. The black background makes it for me. How did you achieve that?

Hi Dan. I worked these two egrets for a bit and all of those images came out with a pleasing black bg. After the bg was cleaned up of distracting objects, the blacks were adjusted darker with an selective color layer mask. Glad you enjoyed it!

[Ramon M. Casares]

I think the black BG gives the scene an even more intimate feeling, I like how it looks very much, the whole image is beautiful! Congratulations!

[Sid Garige]

If it was not that green leafs in foreground, it would have been even better. Great background for white subject and packed with action.

[Shawn Marques]

Thanks, Sid. I wasn't sure as to whether to leave the foliage in or not. At least it's an easy fix! Thank you for your insight.