Raging Hormones...

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. I am always awestruck when seeing the profound changes in birds during mating season. In this case the blackening of the tip of the bill, the deep red of the face and gular sack, and also the prominence of the gular sack. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 400mm
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 360 Auto 1 WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Cropped for composition and presentation

[annmpacheco]

Yikes, thats quite the gular! Lovely exposure Joe, I could see a tighter crop losing the body to really highlight this transformation! Wonderful. TFS

[Debapratim Saha]

Great light and well exposed red and white combination working perfect here.

[Isaac Grant]

Pretty nice Joe. Good details and I really like how the colors work here. I would add some room to the top. Also the bird has a strong blue cast to do, especially on the back of the head, back and rear of the bird.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, a really striking image and love the warm, yet subtle light on the whites, it depicts the time of day nicely, but it's the overall colour palette that is the cornerstone to the image. Think you may have pushed a couple of colours to achieve what you saw which may have choked some of the great detail you captured. Some subtle, yet simple tweaks will enhance the image and if you have time worth a RP. A tad more DoF for the tip of the beak as it's slightly angled towards you, framing works and your shooting perspective.
I'll drop you a line, see what you think, nice one Joe. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, a really striking image and love the warm, yet subtle light on the whites, it depicts the time of day nicely, but it's the overall colour palette that is the cornerstone to the image. Think you may have pushed a couple of colours to achieve what you saw which may have choked some of the great detail you captured. Some subtle, yet simple tweaks will enhance the image and if you have time worth a RP. A tad more DoF for the tip of the beak as it's slightly angled towards you, framing works and your shooting perspective.
I'll drop you a line, see what you think, nice one Joe. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, received you email and suggestions to improve the image. I used your suggested settings tweaking slightly. I didn't export the original and a virtual copy into Photoshop because I am mostly Lightroom centered. I tried o match the image in the attachment in he email. I really like the lighter blue background and as you said lightening red on the face did reveal more detail. Here is my go at it

[Isaac Grant]

Joe on my screen the colors are still off and you don't have enough detail in the whites. I would start this again from the RAW and try and get the colors perfect. Here is a quick redo where I changed the white balance using the white dropper in curves. Used the whitest spot on shoulder (which I didn't bother to fix by the way as I know it is hot), I reduced the blues on the bird by a bunch, ran some detail extractor at 10% opacity on the whites, then in selective color I lowered the blacks and yellows in the whites to get it back to looking like a white bird. The whites are still off here but the colors area step in the right direction. Way too much work to do on a tiny converted jpeg but here is an idea where I think it should go.

[Walker Noe]

Really great image here Joseph. Both reposts pushed this shot in the right direction for sure. A little more tweaking and you have a killer image. I never knew these guys changed so much in breeding plumage.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, you are more than welcome, glad it hopefully put you on the right track, nice to keep the warm light in the whites.

All the best. :wave:

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

What a beautiful bird, well worth a shot Joseph! The red & white go so well together! Not much to add to the previous comments though - I think Isaac has nailed the colors perfectly!

You have me quite curious - if you don't mind me asking: your Great Egret shot was taken with a D7000. Was that before you bought the D500?

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Toby, yes the D7000 was before the D500. The D7000 was a good camera (I made a lots of fine images with it) but the D500 is a great camera. A lot of things better in it... sensor, autofocus, etc.. Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Very Nice Image.

I like the background colors and the Reds.

I agree reposts are much better.

Thanks for sharing.