Great Egret... breeding colors and soft light

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at the rookery in the alligator breeding pond in Gatorland, Orlando, Florida. While photography at Gatorland can be challenging because of cluttered backgrounds the boardwalk does provide close proximity to nesting and breeding birds. On this bird the lore is almost all green, the eye is turning red indicating the peak of breeding hormones. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S ED HH
1/400 F/8 Matrix Metering EV -1 ISO 100 Auto WB, image captured at 230mm
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction when needed
Cropped for composition and presentation


P.S. Learn more about Gatorland in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link The BAA Middle of Florida Site Guide (https://birdsasart-shop.com/the-baa-middle-of-florida-photographic-site-guide/)

[Dorian Anderson]

The soft lighting and details look fantastic against the blackground, but the missing bill is a very big issue for me. Also, as the lores are the focus, they should not be placed on the short side of the frame. I think a
horizontal crop with full bill (if you have it) and lores just slightly left of center would be killer. I imagine you were trying to show the curved neck here, but our eye goes straight to the lores. Make those the focus.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, agree the crop just doesn't work and for something like this to work, it has to look planned/designed. Overall the detail and sharpness looks good. Like the jet black backdrop!

A thought:
Reduce the Blue, its in the plumage.
Temp, go cooler, -12 gives a good starting point in LR as a JPEG.
Did you add vibrance to give it a warm look? For me it masks the plumage and all other colours
I used a curves adjustment just pull the whites back and what you have is really nice, but no warmth. Not the best route, but in Selc colour, Whites just move the yellow slider look at the white...

If you give they & bill a bit more USM selective just a fraction the image looks cool IMHO

4x5 crop, full with a bit of black at the top less below, might be another option, but a hard image to make something.

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, agree the crop just doesn't work and for something like this to work, it has to look planned/designed. Overall the detail and sharpness looks good. Like the jet black backdrop!

A thought:
Reduce the Blue, its in the plumage.
Temp, go cooler, -12 gives a good starting point in LR as a JPEG.
Did you add vibrance to give it a warm look? For me it masks the plumage and all other colours
I used a curves adjustment just pull the whites back and what you have is really nice, but no warmth. Not the best route, but in Selc colour, Whites just move the yellow slider look at the white...

If you give they & bill a bit more USM selective just a fraction the image looks cool IMHO

4x5 crop, full with a bit of black at the top less below, might be another option, but a hard image to make something.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, you and Dorian make me work too hard. :wave: Here is what I came up with. I had cut off the bill because I needed to fix a portion of it that was in the shade, I did that and now the bird has a complete bill. I reduced the temperature -18 in Lightroom. I also had to go to a 1x1 crop for the composition I wanted. WDYT?

[John Mack]

A beauty for sure. Sweet light and that dark background makes the bird pop nicely. I would take either crop.

[Jim Crosswell]

The repost works for me Joe. The dark BG really makes the Egret stand out.

[Brian Sump]

I really dig the repost Joe. Very artistic and the white/green on black is super!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Steve, you and Dorian make me work too hard.

Joe, 'no gain without pain', yes the RP is a big improvement, but the blue in the top white plumage is still there, it has to go. :w3

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated.