Snowy Egret Dip Fishing...

[Joseph Przybyla]

This image was captured at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. I sat on the bank of a small pond watching this bird fly low over the surface of the water, when seeing a fish thrusting it foot into the water to grasp the fish. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering -2/3 EV ISO 280 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, well scene, do you have a few frames on, I just wonder if the HA might be better??

I might just burn back some of those hotter whites in LR to get some tone back in for definition/form and a slight CCW rotation perhaps??? If you have, then I would mask out any sharpening on the water. Again at tad more ISO for the SS, you could have easily taken it to 1/3200 and the image would have been even better.

TFS
Steve

[Bill Dix]

That's a great action shot, Joe. I have no problem with the head angle. But I'll echo Steve's other suggestions: just the slightest toning down of the whitest whites; and slightly less sharpening on the splash. But only slightly. Not sure about the rotation. Your gear could certainly handle a bit more ISO.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Steve and Bill, thanks for viewing, commenting and suggesting improvements. This is an edit backing off the sharpening and lowering the whites. In the original the brightest whites were 96% which is 245 on the 0-255 scale. In the repost the whites are at 94% which is in the range of 235-240. Regarding the head angle... I chose this one because it was the best of the lot and I like it because the right foot is in the water and the head/bill is ready to grasp the fish if successful (it was not).

[Bill Dix]

Better on both counts, Joe. I usually try to limit the whites to around 235, but it doesn't always work out that way.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, I think it's better, but I feel there is more within the original capture. I meant to say, pull back the Shad/Contrast and even a hint on the blacks, it just then opens some of the detail in the darks, obviously you have far more control within the RAW, but from what I can see, you have a lot within the original capture that you can 'tease' out and really take this image to another level. Slight CCW rotation, FWIW .

Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Will do Steve, thanks for your help.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful catch! -- I didn't know they fished that way.

Steve pulled out a lot of detail in the whites. There will be more in the raw file. The Highlights and Shadows sliders are magic, balanced with watching the histogram and using the Blacks and whites with discretion.

[Lorant Voros]

I find this one interesting and I like the action a lot. There is lot of movement in the image, splashing water and interesting broken reflection. Probably there is more to extract from the RAW with some good PP work.