Great Egret... breeding colors

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image in the rookery at the alligator breeding pond in Gatorland, Orlando, Florida. Bird in the shade, background in the sun. 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 230mm
1/1600 F/8 Matrix Metering EV +2/3 ISO 1800 WB set by eyedropper on whites on head, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped from horizontal moving the vertical box for composition and presentation

P.S. I was photographing the bird with the head parallel to the sensor when it decided to pluck a feather. I didn't have time to change to vertical lest I not capture the image.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Background colors look nice.

I see lots of color cast in the bird which needs to be corrected. Whites can be lifted well

Wish eye is much more parallel to the sensor and more visible.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Background colors look nice.

I see lots of color cast in the bird which needs to be corrected. Whites can be lifted well

Wish eye is much more parallel to the sensor and more visible.

Hi Krishna, thank you for viewing and commenting. Not sure what color casts you are seeing in the bird, as I run my cursor around the white feathers the balance of the RBG is pretty much evenly balanced. There was shading/shadows in areas of the feathers, I reduced the black in the whites which appeared to smooth that out. Regarding lifting the whites I disagree. I always check the whites and set the brightest whites in the range of 230 to 240. I checked this image, the top of the head is in the range of 237 and the lower breast is 245. Maybe a difference in our monitors? Thanks again, Krishna. Here is a repost with the blacks reduced in the whites.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I took your file in photoshop and tried to edit and fix the colors which looked off to me.

I saw cyan cast and Yellow cast on the bird.

I used Digital Color Meter and saw some whites which are in 219 range.

I added curves

Below is the output.

Hope it helps.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I think as he bird is in the shade, we need to brighten it a little bit more..

I am interested in hearing your opinion and other comments as well.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Krishna, still working on the image. I had mentioned in a previous post that I reduced the blacks on the white feathers, in this repost I also reduced the saturation in the white feathers. I had brightened the whites a lot from the image out of the camera. A challenge to post process to balance the bird and bright background. Here is a repost with the changes mentioned.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Krishna, I looked up the Digital Color Meter you mentioned in a previous post. Basically is does the same thing as when I move the cursor around the image in Lightroom, it shows the brightness and range of RBG. What I read said it was for a Apple/Mac monitor. I use a Eizo Color Edge monitor that has a wide gamut to 99% of Adobe RGB. The Apple Mac monitors use a color space called DCI P3 used in the movie industry. This article I think will explain it better than I. I think part of our differences in what we see is the difference of our displays, not that I do not think that the image needed improvements. That is where BPN is so helpful.

http://www.colourspace.xyz/the-new-apple-imac-and-the-dci-p3-colour-gamut/

[Svetlana VanKempen]

Love the colors in this image, and the S-curve of the bird

[Jonathan Ashton]

Love it Jo! I think your #6 is superb, I love the whites and the bill which is dark but has detail. The whites are very clean and detailed, I am being really persnickety now but a further improvement would be to lower the luminosity in the yellows at raw stage, they are slightly blown, I wouldn't be surprised if they were not blown in the TIF.

[John Mack]

Very nice frame. The pose is great and i love that background. Well done.

[Dorian Anderson]

Love the mellow mood to this shot, Joseph. Agree there are some color cast issues in the original that have largely been fixed in the reposts. Really strong frame.

[kevin Hice]

Great capture Joseph. Love the background colors and the second is better gets rid of some of the color blue off the wing.I see a little color on the neck I think reflection from the light. But I like this agree with Dorian great mood. Yes it would be better to have more eye.
But take what you are offered. You did great.

[Bill Dix]

Lovely pose, Joe. Very handsome image. I also wondered it the color issue is at least partly due to reflected light. But I'll agree that #6 does the trick.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.