Great Egret Pose

[dankearl]

1/400 @ f5.6
iso 400
Nikon D3000
70-300mm @ 300mm

Early morning (almost dark) light.

http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af332/dkearl/DSC_0059-4.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Dramatic lighting here, with just enough on the eye to make it pop a bit.
I like the color in the water, but wish the head was not merging with the background. This is more important because the head is shaded a bit, and doesn't stand out as much as usual for this bird.

The bird isn't showing much detail. Did you run noise reduction on the entire image?

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

Randy, I used Gaussian Blur on the image, totally blurred it and "brought it back into focus'.
My idea was to show the ethereal nature of the "whiteness" of the egret, which I think is striking.
Probably a mistake on my part, I really did like the lighting and tried to emphasize that.

[Randy Stout]

I think it is fine to try for a different look, but it is helpful if you are doing something other than a straight shot, to mention it in your description, so people understand and interpret it in that light, and not as a 'normal' shot gone bad!

Cheers

Randy

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice early morning light and setting. I see Randy's point with head starting to merge with BG. Maybe with some more PS work, you can get both the effect you are looking for and bring out detail as well.