Egret with fish

[Paul Burdett]

Just trying something different with this recent capture. Cheers.

D500/500PF, 1/4000th sec@f5.6, iso1000, manual mode HH. Basic adjustments in ACR and PS with the BG darkened.

[Kurt Bowman]

Great pose on the egret and the fish Paul! It feel like the IQ is suffering and you lost some detail though in the head and feathers. Is this a big crop?

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Paul, I agree with Kurt, great pose on the egret and fish. Looking at the image it appears you darkened the background, most likely using a global adjustment because there is a lot of black on the subject. You listed ACR and Photoshop, have you tried the new masking tools that ACR and Lightroom have. It is a excellent tool, very much improved. Using the masking tool when I want to darken a background in Lightroom I do one of two things. If what I want to darken or work on is sky, I choose Select Sky. If the background is not sky I choose Select Subject and then invert the selection so I can work on the background only. I do a lot of double processing, one set of settings for the subject and another set of settings for the background. In this image parts of the bill are getting lost in the background. I think the image has a lot of potential you just have to process it differently. Thank you for sharing.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Paul ... can only echo the above comments .
Nice content with cool behavior captured .
Without knowing the RAW file .... I think you shredded the image with your processing , I might be well wrong though .

TFS Andreas

[Paul Burdett]

Tank you all for the feedback...much appreciated.
Kurt: yes, this is a fairly large crop and i agree that the IQ has suffered.
Joseph: I did darken the BG but not globally. I used a combination of the burn tool around the bird as well as some masking. I'm aware of the masking tools in ACR, but didn't use them this time, although I know how they work. I will make use of them in future. I did lighten the end section on the bill as it was "lost" in the original background to some degree. Processing the BG separate from the FG is something I do as well.
Andreas: I'm actually quite happy how the image looks on my monitor, but will go back and re edit and try to improve it.

[Paul Burdett]

I decided to go back to square one and re edit the raw file again. More bird this time and no noise reduction or sharpening at all. Aimed to get better whites as well. Thoughts?