Great Egret... breeding colors and red eye

[Joseph Przybyla]

Almost time for the rookery at Gatorland in Orlando, Florida. I have been reviewing past images to plan what I would like to work on this year. This image shows the green lore and red eye of a Great Egret which is present only for a short time when breeding. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/3200 F/8 Matrix Metering -1 2/3 EV to protect the whites ISO 250 AWB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation

[annmpacheco]

Hi Joe,
We've been dow this road before with the red eye, green lore and i enjoy it every time you post! It is not common and not all breeding Great Egrets will have this but hopefully this one will catch the "eye" of a mate! Beautiful details throughout but perhaps a tad hot on the curved neck... Well done.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Joe,
Lovely portrait with fine details. I especially like the texture of the green. well done.
Allen

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, at ISO250 the BKG looks quite noisy, have you 'lifted' the exposure as the grain should really not be there?? I would add an Exposure layer to help on the RHS as viewed to bring back some more tonal depth/detail. I might have gone even more on the DoF here as the subject is slightly angled, with the bill coming closer. It might be optical, but the top part of the bill doesn't look as detailed as below, or is it my eyes? I would do the same adjustment as you did previously for around the eye and the green to bring some more tonal depth back it, as it will help define the nice texture.

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe,
We've been dow this road before with the red eye, green lore and i enjoy it every time you post! It is not common and not all breeding Great Egrets will have this but hopefully this one will catch the "eye" of a mate! Beautiful details throughout but perhaps a tad hot on the curved neck... Well done.

Hi Ann, you remember well. Same bird, same image, but a whole new workflow and post processing. A cleaner file, whiter whites and better detail. I checked the curved neck, the whites are at 240 or about 93-94 % in Lightroom. That is where I try to keep the brightest whites. Thank you for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, at ISO250 the BKG looks quite noisy, have you 'lifted' the exposure as the grain should really not be there?? I would add an Exposure layer to help on the RHS as viewed to bring back some more tonal depth/detail. I might have gone even more on the DoF here as the subject is slightly angled, with the bill coming closer. It might be optical, but the top part of the bill doesn't look as detailed as below, or is it my eyes? I would do the same adjustment as you did previously for around the eye and the green to bring some more tonal depth back it, as it will help define the nice texture.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, I did lift the exposure because I had to underexpose to protect the whites. I think in this edit and repost the grain in the background is fixed. In Lightroom using the Adjustment Brush I masked the background and applied 100% noise reduction and reduced the Clarity of the background. I was concentrating so much on the whites, feather detail, and area around the eye that I never noticed the grain in the background. Lesson learned... look at the big picture. Thanks for viewing, commenting, and teaching. Very much appreciated.

[William Dickson]

Nice looking image Joe, and Steve's suggestions look good on the repost. I like the detail on the eye area and also the feathers. Lovely colours on the bird.

Will

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, if the whites were OK I would have just left things as shot, as having a darker BKG (if I understand correctly) may have added a bit more pop to the subject. The RP is better, but there are some areas you need to address still, but you will know where they are, as you just need to tighten up your layers & masking.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific look at the breeding plumage. Great detail in the whites. The repost improves the BG.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Beautiful light. Nice Capture..I love the colors and the beautiful sharp Eye..