Reddish Egret Strut

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 7D
500mm
Gitzo/Wimberley
Standing in the water

ISO 400
1/1600
f/8.0

Just getting around to processing this now, taken last Feb out with Shadle on Alafia Banks, Tampa, FL. I had such a productive day that there are many pics I haven't worked on yet! Some that I think might be worth it. Here's a reddish egret that I liked for the blue of the lores and legs, the body flat to us, the raised foot, and the head angle.
Not much done in PP though a pretty significant crop, perhaps 50%. Lightening of leg in shadow. Some clean up in BG.
All comments and critiques greatly appreciated. Thank you for looking.

[Brendan Dozier]

Beautiful looking Egret, Melissa, great colors, like the pose, soft light and the flow to those neck feathers. Nicely composed and looks great against dark BG.

[Don Lacy]

Hi Melissa, I love Reddish Egrets when they are in their breeding colors. The egret is a little to dark in the frame and the BG is a bit noisy. All I did here was adjust the white point and ran some NR on the BG only. One way to controll noise is to never sharpen the BG use a layer mask to selectively sharpen the subject only

[Melissa Groo]

Wow, nicely done, Don, thank you. I was thinking it looked a tad dark after I posted but thought I'd wait to see what others said. Great job.
I love reddish egrets too, esp in breeding, they are so rich in color.

[gail bisson]

Hi Melissa,
I am curious as to the time of day this was taken? Bird is beautifully illuminated and Don took care of the noise in the bg ( ...aaarg, those 7D's). Why is the Bg so dark?
Gail

[Melissa Groo]

This was about 8:30 am, Gail. I think behind is just the dark shadows under the mangroves and of course the angle of light at that time of day.

[gail bisson]

Thanks Melissa for the info. I like this shot and I love the breeding colors and the raised leg and the way he is "spotlighted" against the BG like an actor on the stage! ell done,
Gail

[dankearl]

I think the bird is beautiful and the pose is very nice.
I can't see a lot of difference in the repost, the OP is nice, maybe just a bit of NR on the BG.
I like the dark BG.
I wish we had this species where I live.

[Don Lacy]

I am curious as to the time of day this was taken? Bird is beautifully illuminated and Don took care of the noise in the bg ( ...aaarg, those 7D's). Why is the Bg so dark?
7D files just need to be sharpen properly you really should never sharpen the OOF or solid color BG in any image all you are doing is sharpening the noise this includes capture sharpening if using ACR go to the sharpening tab hold down the option key(on a mac not sure with PC) and move the masking slider to the right until the BG turns black. After you size the image for the web you should selectively sharpen the subject only this is especially important with the 7D or any high megapixel camera.

[Bob Pelkey]

Nice potential. Your exposure bias was way off here (too high from the looks of it). Provide full exif info in the future for a better critique.