Cattle Egret – morning light

[Richard Flack]

Cattle Egret – morning light
Date taken: 29 November 2013
Photo details:
Canon EOS 7D
400mm f2.8
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/4000
F stop 5.6
Exposure bias -0.7
30% crop

[Henry Domke]

I'm seeing an odd stair-stepping effect along the wing edges where they touch the sky. Is that a sharpening artifact?
It almost looks like JPG artifact - did you shoot RAW or JGP?
It would be more visually appealing if the feet weren't in a shadow.
Good highlight detail on such a white bird.

[adrian dancy]

I agree with Henry regarding exposure and lighting. However, I'm not sure I agree that it's a jpeg artifact and I would be interested to see an example of such artifacts occurring in camera. I am able to guess the cause but I think it's for Richard to say.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I see what Henry mentions around the contour of the subject...looks like jaggies caused by a resizing issue as there is also some faint posterization on the sky. Whites looked like they were nicely controlled. Good comp. Not my favorite wing position though (far one is OK), and the subject is a bit steep. Eye looks great!

[Richard Flack]

Thanks for the comments guys. Not a jpeg artifact. Should have actually picked it up before posting. I was doing a lens blur to the background (should have mentioned on the post) and seem to have got things a bit wrong when highlighting the area to blur. Oh well, this can be sorted pretty easily. Thanks for taking the time.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Richard, excellent whites, these guys can blow easily. This is not my favourite wing position, but Im sure you chose the best one of the sequence.

[Richard Flack]

Thanks Stuart! Yah, not my favourite wing position either but flying birds are not always the most cooperative. Thanks again for helping me with NR on backgrounds (Still learning as you can see :))