Great Egret

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image last April at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. 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
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1600 AWB HH
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Colin Driscoll]

Lovely wingspan and light all really standing out of the complex background.

[Steen Torner]

A fine image of the egret although the background is a bit messy.
If you have a bit more space around the bird I would suggest using it.
Impressing wingspan and good sharpness on the bird.

Regards Steen

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp on the head with a good exposure. I too would like to see a bit more room all around.

with love, arite

[Daniel Cadieux]

What an awesome wingspan you got his individual in! Great looking whites. I like most of the surroundings, except for the branches touching the bill.

[Isaac Grant]

I like this one Joe. Circle B has been really good to you. You have a great wing spread here and I think the crop is perfect. On my screen the whites are too gray and have a slight blue cast to them. I would select the bird, go to selective color, choose the whites and lower the blacks in the whites between 30 to 50 points to brighten and whiten the egret up. I would also reduce the blue channel in hue/saturation by at least 50% to get rid of the cast. Easy fixes for an otherwise very pleasing shot.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

To those who suggested more room around the bird, I did try before posting. I kind of worked myself into a corner on this one literally. In the original frame the bird is in the lower left hand corner pretty much as shown here. I tried several times to add canvas always deleting the attempt because it just didn't look good. Any suggestions or help on how to extend canvas on a image like this would be appreciated.

Isaac here is a repost using your suggestions, reducing the black in the white selective color and reducing the blue in HSL. Thanks for viewing and suggesting improvements.

[Bill Dix]

Great looking bird, with perfect wing spread. I rather like the background but agree it is a bit complex. The tangle of twigs behind the bill are unfortunate but the rest is very nice.

[Isaac Grant]

Don’t think there is a good way to expand canvas on a shot like this Joe. Whites look better but I think you can push them even more. I’d be very pleased to have a shot like this. Super common bird captured really well.