Great Egret Display

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 1D Mark IV
500mm
Handheld from sitting position

ISO 1600
f/4.5
1/800 sec

Had a super time with Cheryl Molennor shooting together during my recent trip to FL. We found some egrets settling in for the evening at a pond near Tampa. The light was pretty drab that day and the sun just about down anyway, but we decided to see what we could get, and also decided to test out our 1D Mark IVs at high ISOs. We both set our cameras to 1600 ISO. Suddenly one of the great egrets began to crouch down and then stretch up in its fantastically beautiful display pose. This may be a dime a dozen shot to folks who live in FL or travel there regularly, but this was my first time ever witnessing this, and I was beyond thrilled. I think the dark background helped to set off the egret here.
I did run NR a few times to the BG, a bit to the bird, cloned out a few twigs, sharpened, cropped, and rotated (to the right) a bit. Used Detail Extractor to in Nik Color to bring out some detail in the whites.
Thanks for looking. I appreciate all comments.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

This is just beautiful Melissa, very well done. I like the way the display stands out against the darkish BG. TFS.
Sanjeev

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

I think their sky pointing display with the aigrettes displayed against a darker background is an iconic image, and I never tire of trying to capture just the perfect example of it.

Well exposed, pleasant bg.

Perhaps a sliver more room for my tastes, esp. inf. and sup.

I am a little surprised there was much noise showing in the white areas. It seems like the NR on the bird and the detail extractor are working against each other.

Can you post the image without the noise reduction on the bird? Curious to see how it appears. Did you need to bring the exposure up much?

Cheers

Randy

[Roman Kurywczak]

I love photographing birds against the dark BG's......and this is a great example of why! I'm OK with this as presented....but if you have a hair more room on bottom.....that should satisfy most. Noise looks OK on this end.....not sure if whites lost detail due to overcast as sometimes they do. I never get tired of that pose!

[Mike Milicia]

Gorgeous image! Very nicely done with perfect body and head angle and wonderful BG!

Agree a bit more room on the bottom would be a small but welcome improvement.

[Melissa Groo]

Randy, here is the unworked image, but for NR applied once to the BG, and an increase in exposure overall. What do you think, do you see any noise on the bird?

[Jim Neiger]

This is really nice! It can be difficult to capture this behavior without a cluttered bg. I like the composition as well. The repost without NR is an improvement, but I think the Egret needs a bit more sharpening. Also, it looks like some of the detail in the whites has been lost in processing.

[nick clayton]

I love the pose and beautiful feathers of this bird Melissa.

[Mike Milicia]

Could just be me but seeing the full frame image made me wonder if this actually needs some CW rotation as the bird's posture looks a bit unnatural to me.
I tried rotating 2 degrees clockwise and it looked more natural and improved the image for me. Try it and see what you think.
Keeping a big lens level when handholding a vertical capture can certainly be challenging.

One other thing after seeing the full frame, unaltered image (and I will likely be in the minority on this one) is that I would actually prefer the branches and twigs be left as is.
It looks more natural, adds some interest, becomes part of the story as this is a very typical habitat for this behavior, and there's not a single branch there that is a real image killer which is quite astonishing.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

At web size, I am not seeing any appreciable noise in the bird itself, and since it def. needs more sharpening, I would be hesitant to reduce my apparent sharpness by running the NR on the bird.

I do agree with Mike, that it needs a smidge of CW rotation.

For my tastes, I would remove only the sticks beneath the bird that are close to touching the body, and leave the outer sticks alone.

Cheers

Randy

[Melissa Groo]

Ok, here's a quick rework with no NR on the bird, extra sharpening, some more space below. Mike, I had rotated for my OP, about 2.58 CW. Rotated again for this repost, about the same. Only removed a couple sticks. Hope it's improved.
Thanks a lot everyone for the feedback and helpful suggestions.

[Mike Milicia]

Mike, I had rotated for my OP, about 2.58 CW. Rotated again for this repost, about the same.

Oops!! Of course you did ... sorry for not being more observant

Repost looks great!

[Don Lacy]

Hi Melissa, Love the pose and this image has a lot of potential but the image as posted for me had some processing issues so I pulled it into PS to see what I could do with it. For me the BG really lets the image down so i tackled that first and two rounds of selected NR on it using the noise filter in PS I then used a curve adjustment to darken it further and I also increased the whites to brighten the Egret. To finish it off I neutralize the whites in NIK CEP4 since they had a color cast.

[Melissa Groo]

Don, thank you! I like what you did, a lot. My most recent repost was a bit of a rough one, agreed, as I didn't run much NR or darken background the way I had first time. And I had partly addressed cast in first post, but forgot to do that last time around. You took it a step further and made it sing.

[Karl Egressy]

Without getting into the fine details with PP and the rest, I like the pose, the fine feathers and the nice bakcgorund, Melissa.
I might say that the best composition for me would be the original one.

[Nick Palmieri]

great capture Melissa!

[gail bisson]

Hi Melissa,
I love seeing this iconic sky pointing behavior.
The whites against dark BG are terrific.
I like the splashes of orange as well in the BG. I see no noise in the whites.
I like the repost that Don did but mostly because it gives you more space below,
Gail

[dankearl]

I think Don's repost looks good.
The BG noise was too much for me in the OP.
Tough photo to get with the contrasting bird and Bg.
I Like the comp in the reposts also, I also like the space below.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Melissa this is a beautiful image with a great pose wonderful detail and a great colored bg. It was alot of fun shooting with you this day and I was so happy for you that you got to witness this beautiful display. I never tire of it. Don has fixed the biggest problem I noticed immediately being the bg and it looks great now. I am not agreeing with the rotation though as I am quite familiar with this location and that tree is more straight across with a little slope upward on our right side. I checked my images to make sure so your OP is closer to correct. I am seeing some evidence of cloning by the branches you could adress as well. Very nice PS work by Don as usual and it shows the potential in an already great image.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a stunning image for all reasons mentioned, and I am with Mike on the branches being an asset to this image. Don's RP is spot on as far as the processing and comp.

[arash_hazeghi]

what a display Melissa! lovely pose, I would only run NR on the BG, noise will not show on those white feathers...

[Robert Holguin]

Beautiful shot.
Just love the very dramatic pose. Excellent details and exposed very well.
I really like Don's repost.
Very well done.

[Greg Oakley]

Stunning image Melissa - a pose not often seen of this species!
Cheers, Greg

[Frank Schauf]

Very, very elegant image, Melissa.

[PhilCook]

Dons repost has made this amazing image...brilliant. I've yet to see one of these displaying in full breeding plumage, very spectacuar

[Don Lacy]

Melissa, I am glad you like the repost I will caution you and every one else using NIKS CEP4 filters they can cause more issue then they fix if not used judiciously and with layers and mask. I find the detail filter does a great job of showing noise in an image and turning nice clean OOF BG into a splotchy mess.

[Troy Lim]

Elagent pose for sure. I like the shot a lot. Don's version looks really good. Hope you can get close to that. It is a nice image that is worth spending some time getting it right.