Great Egret... breeding colors

[Joseph Przybyla]

This is for you, Artie. I captured this image recently at Gatorland, Orlando, 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
1/500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 180 Auto 1 WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Small Crop for composition and presentation

P.S. I left the whites as shot in the early morning light

[gail bisson]

Good solid portrait and the whites look awesome. Love the green lores.
Great DOF at 5.6. How much of a crop?
Gail

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Nicely captured, Joe. The whites do look great, and I like the tucked in head pose. Usual sharpness where it needs to be.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Juan Tolentino]

Hi Joe, beautiful light and colors. I wish you had the whole bill parallel to the sensor. TFS.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Good solid portrait and the whites look awesome. Love the green lores.
Great DOF at 5.6. How much of a crop?
Gail

Hi Gail, a small crop just a tad off the left side and top to move the bird eye up in the frame. Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, beautiful light and colors. I wish you had the whole bill parallel to the sensor. TFS.

Hi Juan, I think you must be seeing that the tip of the bill is soft. Maybe just a bit but I can hit that area with more sharpening and see how it takes it. I don't think it is too soft. The head is only turned about one degree towards the viewer which brings the eye towards the viewer for eye contact. I have some perfectly parallel and they appear that the bird is looking straight ahead, that one degree makes a big difference. Maybe could have gone to F/8 but would not have gained much. Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[Jake Levin]

Gorgeous background and sunrise light. I love the egrets when they get all dressed up to find a mate. The end of the bill being slightly off sharp doesn't bother me in the slightest; it's to be expected when you're up close to the bird and the head angle is that ideal 1 to 2 degrees turned towards you. I would definitely keep your aperture settings more or less where they were, at the risk of bringing in too much detail in the background, which, if I remember correctly, can be rather messy at Gator Land. I might be tempted to do a bit of bill clean-up, but that's just a personal preference and not at all mandatory; the image works great just as it is.

[Arthur Morris]

It's about time! Very sweet. Sharpness of the bill tip looks just fine to me.

with love, artie

[Mike Poole]

Brilliant shot Joe, you've really upped your game over recent months and this is another great portrait - no nits from me at all

Mike

[John Mack]

Gorgeous. Love the light and the background on this one.

[Alex Becker]

This is super nice Joe. Great BG, light, details, and DOF is okay with me. All in all a very solid image. TFS