THEME -- Straight Down the Barrel - Reddish Egret Touch Down

[Melissa Groo]

Taken a few weeks ago on my day out to the Alafia Banks off Tampa, with James Shadle. Wondering if there's any better way to bring out the staredown of the egret, the eyes seem a bit lost.

All C&C welcome and appreciated!

Canon 7D, 500mm, Gitzo 3530LS, Wimberley II. 1/2000s, f/8, ISO 400. Standing in water.
Some crop, sharpening, contrast boost, noise removal.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Great detail, exp, light and colors....A bit tight maybe? Thats my taste though...Nicely done Melissa

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Fits the theme well, great wingspread display, sharp.

I think the image is just a bit bright, might try a version at -1/3 stop from here.

Getting more detail of the staredown will be tough with the entire bird showing( the eyes are small) It also is effected by the far tree line going through the head in that same area.

I would consider loosening the crop all the way around.

Cheers

Randy

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Randy and Dumay. How about this, less crop, and darkened a bit in Levels.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa

Much better luminosity for me, shows a bright day, not too bright

crop is better. Still a bit snug, but good for the theme

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Neiger]

Nice bird and pose and Ditto what Randy said in both his posts.

[Paul Guris]

Thumbs up on the re-post.

[Grace Scalzo]

Nice, the repost is sweet. I'd personally loose the dark spots in the green strip, they draw my attention. Great pose.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks guys. Grace, now that you mention it, those spots have become glaring! I will definitely tone them down (or up). Thanks for that.

[Arthur Morris]

By darkening the whole image rather than just the wings, the water is much too dark in the repost. I did a ton of things to get to this repost, all described in Digital Basics (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa-store/digital/breeze-browser/). If you like my repost, I can let you know briefly what I did.

One big problem that I do not think that anyone mentioned was the head being cut by the bottom of the mangroves...

[Steve Canuel]

Nice wingspan and I don't think the limited eye visibility hurts this one given he's coming in for a landing. I like the spiky look of the head feathers. Your repost looks good to me and Artie's addressed the dark shadowed spots in the BG trees (although I'd still like to see a little bit of shadow).

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Melissa, well timed to capture the full wing spread on the landing. With the head on angle you have here, there's not much you can do about bringing out the eyes, but feel it would be easy to have extended the canvas on either side. Good job on your repost, but agree with Artie on just darkening the egret. Still, well captured.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice dynamic landing pose with nice details and light.

[Melissa Groo]

By darkening the whole image rather than just the wings, the water is much too dark in the repost. I did a ton of things to get to this repost, all described in Digital Basics (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa-store/digital/breeze-browser/). If you like my repost, I can let you know briefly what I did.

One big problem that I do not think that anyone mentioned was the head being cut by the bottom of the mangroves...

Artie, please do let me know briefly what you did. I do have a copy of DB, so you can be brief.
I was aware that the head overlapping into the mangroves was less than ideal, should have mentioned it. But I felt the image still had some saving graces.
Thanks much.
Melissa

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Melissa, and thanks for your purchase of Digital Basics. I should have mentioned that I do like the image a lot; that is why I took the time to work on it. I love the braking pose and the sharpness. The dark side of the face (on the bird's right, our left) was a result of your being ever-so-slightly off fun angle but realistically there was not a thing that you could have done better in the field. Heck, you did a fabuloso job of getting the bird in the frame without clipping.

Obviously, I added canvas using the expand crop method. I filled in with a series of Quick Masks and some Clone Stamp & Patch Tool work. I evened out the BKGR with some 40% opacity Clone Stamp Tool work. To darken only the wings, I added BLACK to the WHITEs in selective color, about 75%. I used the Clone Stamp Tool to get rid of the dark area to our left of the bird's head; if you try that on the master file you would need to be much more careful than I was.... Best to learn to use Refine Mask; I still need to do that. Lastly I sharpened the head with a contrast mask. Plus a few more things that I have forgotten :)

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Melissa, and thanks for your purchase of Digital Basics. I should have mentioned that I do like the image a lot; that is why I took the time to work on it. I love the braking pose and the sharpness. The dark side of the face (on the bird's right, our left) was a result of your being ever-so-slightly off fun angle but realistically there was not a thing that you could have done better in the field. Heck, you did a fabuloso job of getting the bird in the frame without clipping.

Obviously, I added canvas using the expand crop method. I filled in with a series of Quick Masks and some Clone Stamp & Patch Tool work. I evened out the BKGR with some 40% opacity Clone Stamp Tool work. To darken only the wings, I added BLACK to the WHITEs in selective color, about 75%. I used the Clone Stamp Tool to get rid of the dark area to our left of the bird's head; if you try that on the master file you would need to be much more careful than I was.... Best to learn to use Refine Mask; I still need to do that. Lastly I sharpened the head with a contrast mask. Plus a few more things that I have forgotten :)

Artie, thanks! That's hugely helpful, to me and I'm sure many others. I will try to recreate your efforts on the original file.
The DB is such an incredible resource, and I think it will take me quite a while to take full advantage of it, it's so packed with info.
And thank you for your positive comments, that's very encouraging.

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome. Thanks for putting a smile on my face :)

[Mark Young]

The wingspread looks great!