Glowing Egret

http://morrisaltman.zenfolio.com/img...29080915-5.jpg

D70s + 80-400 VR @ 160mm, ISO 200, 1/500, f56, fill flash (SB800)

It was the end of a long day out with my family and I was run down as I was coming down with the flu. I sat on a bench by a small pond and told them to go ahead and enjoy the carousel that my son wanted to ride. As I relaxed, this great egret landed right in front of me with the wonderful late afternoon sun illuminating it as it preened. When my wife returned she said “Wow, that’s beautiful why don’t you take a photo of it.” I smiled and showed her this image on my LCD.

To process this I tried 2 versions of the RAW conversion. The first was like this with the clipped highlights, the second without. I loved the pop the glow of the chipped highlights and started to work on that image. I darkened the background and lightened the highlights on the log.

Comments and suggestions welcome,

Morris

Morris, Very lovely pose and the light on the feathers is so nice. I might try to recover just a little in the extreme white area but I agree the pop is great!

Morris, Love the pose and the light on the feathers. I agree with Denise on the whites. TFS.

Beautiful pose and glowing feathers! The angled log works really well along with the angled feathers. I like how the bird fills the frame. I might combine the two RAW conversions to bring our a little bit of the detail in the log, breast and head, to recover detail in the super-bright areas, especially near where the beak goes in, while keeping the beautiful glow.

How awesome is that? I love it when birds just appear out of nowhere :) Love the light on this, and the pose is wonderful.

Nice capture, the evening color rocks....agree with above, good tips given...Nice work too, Morris

Hi Morris...the light on this is exquisite! If this were mine I might darken the top and bottom parts of the log to bring all the emphasis to the bird. Nice work!