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Matt Fragale
01-18-2012, 08:25 PM
Well this is my first post here and I figured I'd leap right into the fire and post something for some feedback. I'm fairly pleased with it, but always interested in a second opinion!

This is a flock of egrets (pretty sure) traveling together across the eastern edge of the Everglades. Taken with a Nikon D3100, using a Nikon 70-300 4.5, 70mm, f/8, 1/640, ISO 400. It is cropped, curves adjusted somewhat, tiny bump in clarity and vibrance, tiny decrease in exposure in PP.

Thanks for your time!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6723093543_29a4f3afd5_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfragale/6723093543/)

Bob Miller
01-22-2012, 06:36 PM
Hi Matt....and welcome!....i think you did a fine job with this image. i like the way you captured the leading edge of the egrets and I feel you did a nice job processing the color of the sky. The left side seems to be a bit too busy but you might not have been able to anything about that. Your crop is Ok i guess but if it were me I would shave a bit off the bottom or perhaps the top. Looking forward to your next post!

Don Railton
01-22-2012, 07:02 PM
Hi Matt

Big welcome from me also. I too like this image a lot. If I were to make any suggestions it would be to try and increase the blue in the sky a little more (maybe selective colour or curves) and I might trim a little off the bottom (maybe up to your name..?) and also off the LHS (level with the M in Matt )to rid the overly hot and busy part of the image.

Don

Matt Fragale
01-22-2012, 07:23 PM
Thanks very much! I can't tell you all how many times I've gone back and forth on where to crop that one. I've had it all the way down to just the birds.... and all the way out to left of the trees... I think the suggestion you made is probably just about right. I'll post an update later. Thanks!

Matt Fragale
01-22-2012, 09:03 PM
How's this?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6745824199_7de9fb6d51_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfragale/6745824199/)

Don Railton
01-23-2012, 08:54 AM
Hi Matt

I like the crop and as I am at home now I had time to play around with the blue in the sky. I used auto level for the first time ever and achieved the attached which is sort of what i was thinking. Had no luck with the selective colour as I suggested. What do you think? Am I moving too far away from the reality? I think sky detail is important as the birds are too small to hold interest in the large part of the image which is sky... Its a sweet image...


DON

Jerry van Dijk
01-23-2012, 03:20 PM
Very nice Matt! I like the leading line of birds (are you sure they are egrets? I see curved bills.....) and the colors and shapes in the sky. I like Dons version, although the colors may be a little over the top. Your original image isn't showing anymore for comparison. Did you remove it already from Flickr?

Dan Brown
01-23-2012, 03:58 PM
Very nice Matt! I like the leading line of birds (are you sure they are egrets? I see curved bills.....) and the colors and shapes in the sky. I like Dons version, although the colors may be a little over the top. Your original image isn't showing anymore for comparison. Did you remove it already from Flickr?Very nice image, Matt. BTW, These are not egrets, if you look close you will probably find that they are mostly if not all Ibis.

Morkel Erasmus
01-23-2012, 03:58 PM
lovely scene here Matt...I like what Don has done but feel the ideal colour profile is somewhere between your OP and his post?

Matt Fragale
01-24-2012, 01:22 AM
The actual hues of the sky when I took the photo are pretty close to the OP. I like what you did there, but perhaps as Morkel suggested, somewhere in between the OP and yours, so I will play around a little with adding a bit of purple/blue to it to get a nice color transition. And thank you, Dan! I'm sure you're right about them being Ibis. I have been enjoying shooting birds but I am woefully inadequate at identifying most of them. Thanks again to everyone for the excellent guidance and kind words!

Matt Fragale
02-23-2012, 12:37 PM
Final image that I think I like best. Thanks everyone for your help with this one!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6723093543_7aec862b6c_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfragale/6723093543/)

Jay Gould
02-23-2012, 02:51 PM
I like it muchly; why bother with Flickr? Your images are not appearing!

Matt Fragale
02-23-2012, 03:15 PM
THanks, Jay! When I first started to visit here I was not a member yet and so I couldn't upload... and now that I am a member... I haven't yet made a LR action to create photos of the correct size for uploading to the forum. lol I'll try to get around to that this weekend and get a few more pictures in an album or something. I like this place, so I guess I might as well get my house in order, eh?