Egret in flight

[Bob Miller]

The egrets are there in droves at Bombay Hook DE, I took this shot late afternoon, crop and adjustments to contrast and exposure in LR
Nikon D3s
1/2000 sec at F4
500 mm
ISO1600

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Bob,

I like the pano crop and the white Egret's are fantastic - in this picture the opportunity is the background and metering. The mixed light is a bit distracting and the image might be underexposed. This is a hard one to nail with the bright sky shinning thru the trees the meter will underexpose to adjust for the bright spots and often the subject can be underexposed. Usually we add around 2 stops of light to compensate when shooting towards a bright light source like the sky or a well lit window. The subject is well past you too and a better position might provide opportunity for shaper detail and a chance to control/grab a cleaner background. I like what you are trying to do here with the habitat and open wing position - keep at it do you have more from this series.

[Kerry Perkins]

Bob, I have the same situation that you have. I have egrets and herons living very close to me but they live and breed in places with busy backgrounds. In my opinion, this image reflects reality, but there is a fine line between reality and "pleasing", so it is hard to know what to do. Is it better to photograph in a place that has interesting birds with lovely backgrounds but is a setup like some wildlife "farms", or is it better to show birds in habitats that are not provided by man? This is a subject that can be debated, but for now we have to say that the busy background detracts from the bird. My personal take on the composition is that you don't need 50% negative space and I would crop some from the left. You have a difficult situation here, as the background sky is clipped at 255, the bird is mostly limited to a maximum value of 200.