Great Egret

[Diane Miller]

Got this shot the other day at our local rookery, right in the middle of an older residential neighborhood. Guess the birds have been there longer than the people.

Canon 5D Mk III, 300mm IS + 1.4 III, ISO 800, f/10, 1/1250. HH, slightly more than FF as I cut off the toes and added them from the next shot in the burst. Basic LR raw processing then some Nik Detail Extractor and Dfine de-noise.

BTW, what are the new size guidelines -- can't find them...

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Diane, great pp work to add back the toes, and this angle gives us a great view of his undercarriage. Having said that, the angle is a bit steep, but still well exposed.

Its always best to try and capture at near to eye level as possible, but you knew that.

With regards to the new posting sizes - 1200 wide, 900 high, and 400kb for file size. I see it hasnt been changed on the forum yet. You can of course still post at any size under that.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks Stuart -- I'll start posting at that size.



Unfortunately the trees are a lot taller than I am. : >) I'd love to rent one of those trucks with the elevated platforms that utility people use.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely exposure and details on this one, Diane. The left wing position and crop aren't the best but still a nice image and the branch adds quite a bit of interest here.

[Diane Miller]

Open to suggestions on changing the crop. It was almost FF before I added some canvas on the bottom for the toe repair, and looking back I see I added a little on the left.


I don't mind a squarish crop for a squarish subject, but know others don't like them.

[arash_hazeghi]

good exposure, details and the nesting material adds more interest, as Marina mentioned left wing position could be better and there is noise in the sky. For me the main issue is the steep angle.

TFS, keep them coming.

[Diane Miller]

The sky and darker areas under the wing have been denoised to a pretty high degree, without going too flat. But converting to JPEG seems to invent measles-like blotches. Since JPEG is never my final form, I usually ignore it. But I should start using a higher quality level -- should help some. I'll try it and watch the file sizes. I have some room to "grow" there.


While eye-level images are generally more descriptive, and common, I find it interesting to sometimes shoot these guys at close range and more overhead -- not always a successful image but I like the fact that the ones that do work are a different POV. And it's a good challenge -- handholding is a must as they are at a very steep angle and moving fast.


Thanks for all comments -- C&C always appreciated and learned from!

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot.
A different perspective the norm.
Exposed very well and I really like the nesting material.
Well done.