Egret in Flight

[Bob Miller]

I isolated this egret against some trees in shadow as it flew by
D3s
5oo mm
1/2000 sec at f5.6
ISO 1100
HH
50% crop
All comments welcome!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Bob,

Nice field technique controlling the background and frame - excellent job isolating the subject!
Looks like a few hot pixels on the neck and head. This is challenging BIF shot, white subject reflecting direct sunlight. The sun angle was on the wrong side of the subject causing a slight shadow on the heard and eye - still a nice pose. Look at the histogram you will see some clipping that could be mitigated with a faster shutter or smaller aperture. For such a large crop it turned out nice just remember to check the histogram and adjust especially with light on white. Many pros set the camera's exposure for the whites first and with reflecting light adding more speed to the shutter is often required. Thanks for posting controlling the frame and developing an eye for composition are among the most difficult things to learn - you are on the right track.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Bob, nice job in picking the moment to push the button and making a nice BIF shot. The bird does stand out nicely from the background. Exposure is good but there are a lot of pixels over 250-250-250 along the leading edges of the wings and the neck. You could tone them down in post, which would help keep the eye on the rest of the egret which is nicely exposed. I would suggest a bit of sharpening on the bird. Well done!

[John Chardine]

Good comments. I will second the need for a bit more sharpness. Perhaps the focus point was on the underside of the left wing- that parts seems well focused but the head is not.

[Doug West]

My suggestion is the wing position. Because of the wing position being down, it obscures part of the leg.

Doug

[Bob Miller]

Thanks for the comments everyone!