Cattle Egret, White Grace!

[Thinus Schoeman]

Hi Folks, I am very new to BPN, as this will be my first post.

Firstly, let me apologize for posting a new thread without uploading an image. That will teach me a lesson to always read the mebership guidelines first.
Anyway, I happily paid my $20, so here we go again.

I will be the first to admit I have a lot to learn, not only about photography and Bird and BIF techniques, but also about post processing.
I have been on a steep learning curve for a few months now, and I don't expect it to end soon.

We don't have a shortage of birds in Pretoria, but we do wish we had more shooting locations and a greater variety of birds at those locations.

Nonetheless, we do have very good locations to practice and to improve our skills and techniques.

With regards to post processing, I am still learning different techniques, some of which I have found (and very useful as well) on BPN. It still is very much trial and error though for me in that area.

For my first post, I selected a Cattle Egret in a very graceful flight pose with a dark tree lined background in the distance.

My Exif data:
Camera Model Canon EOS 6D
Shooting Date/Time 12/10/2013 065:07 AM
Owner's Name
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/2500
Av(Aperture Value) 6.3
ISO Speed 640
Lens EF400mm f/5.6L USM
Exposure Compensation: 0

Thanks for viewing my image, and your comments and critique will be very much appreciated.

[Julian Mole]

Hi Thinus,

Welcome to BPN. :-)

This is a very nice image for a first post, a fine capture with good settings for birds in flight. Your use of a high shutter speed (eg.1/1000 secs+) has frozen the movement and the exposure has kept detail in the white feathers (which are prone to overexposure with a dark background), the composition works for me, with a good wing position and room infront of the bird, the yellow eye is nicely placed (almost on an intersection of thirds) and although the bird is large in the frame I don't feel it is overly tight.

Not much to dislike really and the only improvements I can offer would be to make some subtle adjustment to the image using levels and saturation in photoshop, I have posted a corrected version in which I made the whites slightly brighter and blacks slightly darker (blacks=3, midtones=0.99, whites=246 in levels) and upped the saturation slighty (+4).

Overall a very nice image, well done. Be sure to check out the information available on photographing birds in flight in the 'Tutorial and Educational Resources' forum.

All the best, Julian.

[Julian Mole]

PS. I love the shadow of the bird's head on the underside of the left wing! :-)

[LinzRiverBalmer]

A very nice first image indeed.

Beautifully done, I actually like your original post a bit more than Julian's RP but I can't explain why.

Love the shadow of the head as well.

To me there is something going on color wise in the foot and white of the wing closest to us, nearest the foot....... again someone with expertise will chime in, not sure what I'm seeing.

The eye is very nice and I see a natural highlight or catch light which I think could be bumped up slightly just to get more depth feel to the eye and beautiful yellow.

Welcome

[Thinus Schoeman]

Julian and River Linz Balmer, thanks a lot for viewing my image and for the feedback provided.

Julian, I had a good look at your version, and with my untrained eye I can see the blacks have been upped a bit, as well as the whites. I think your version is possibly an improvement over the image I posted. I also think I could have upped the saturation a touch, but I really try hard to keep my images natural looking, which often leads to my images being under-edited I suppose.
Thanks for taking the time, it is much appreciated!

Linz River Balmer, I think I can see what you are referring too with the front wing, but what may have caused it, I don't know. It could have been introduced I suppose with post processing. Thanks again for taking the time to view and comment on my image.

[Diane Miller]

I'm late to this thread, traveling with limited time to log in. I think this is an excellent image -- it's hard to catch a "closeup" of a flying bird. My only suggestion might be to look at getting just a little more detail in the whites, but that may not be consistent with the natural appearance, since the light is coming almost straight-on to the bird. I often get good results with Nik Color Efex Pro's Detail Extractor. If it makes the BG too busy, you can mask it out on the new layer that will be created.

We look forward to seeing more of your images!

[ArthurSteinberger]

I'm brand new here but I like to look at Eye's, Beak and Feet at first blush. Big score on all three! Nice capture.

[Thinus Schoeman]

Diane and Arthur, thanks for viewing and for the positive feedback, it is much appreciated. Diane, I will have to try Nik Color Efex Pro's Detail Extractor, thanks again.