Interesting and different! Even though it's foggy I wonder if a little increase in exposure would be a good idea. Or a little more contrast with the Curve in LR? Soft light is tricky and bears some experimenting, but maybe you have.
I'd be inclined to crop a little from the right -- not a lot happening there.
I used a masked PS adjustment layer curve on just the bird. The extra on the right was intentional based on "gymnast on a balance beam", which is what I thought of immediately when reviewing the shots from the sequence. There was even more on the right originally. It was really foggy, the egret has been adjusted quite a bit to make it pop more already. The background is about what it looked like from the car. It was a clear morning at the house, but by the time I got to the refuge, it was all fogged in, drove the loop anyway and found the bird walking along a ridge. For a couple of steps it held its leg back as above.
Generally a viewer wants to see a full tonal range in a picture, but of course with a foggy, low contrast scene that changes things from what they were. Just to toss out an idea, I played with an alternative interpretation, but probably went too far for what you want. Just an increase in brightness might be worth comparing.
There is also a slight lean toward magenta which doesn't fit with a foggy scene. And of course you may be seeing things differently on your monitor depending on your calibration.
For reference, here's the original non-cropped capture with only default LR sharpening, and output sharpening on Normal from LR. I would not have noticed the magenta cast if you didn't point it out. I've tried to be better about finding something grayish/whitish and using LR to show the relative RGB levels, which usually points to a problem, especially when it's subtle. It's obviously very low contrast, and I tried to keep that feeling at least a little bit. I'd be interested in ways to help capture the "depth" of a foggy day, either in-camera or PP.
I think what you're seeking is an artistic judgement which can be different for each image. In LR/ACR we can vary the black and white points, detail in darks and lights, and contrast in midtones, with a curve or clarity. Then there are further tweaks in PS -- all a matter of what looks best to the maker. And there can certainly be some limitations from the exposure of the capture and the light.
Balance in the Mist
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