A snowy egret in its breeding color: Not the best background out there but that's how the rookery look like. The exposure was challenging because of the bright plumage of the bird and I was caught off guard by its sudden action so I just fired away with what I had. As a result, I had to bring out the exposure & shadow quite a bit in post-processing. f/7.1, 1/1000, ISO 800, Manual exposure. In post-processing, Exp + 1.10, Highlights -24, Shadows +8, Whites +41, and Blacks -4 to add some contrast back. Background noise reduction done using Nik Dfine and sharpened using the Nik suite, too.
And because mothers have bad hair days as well: Happy mothers day!
Adhika, this is a lovely bird with an unusual perch. And because of the uniqueness I like it very much. The image, as you know, is not without it's problems though. I would consider altering the BG quite a bit if you're up for it. I would be cloning/removing the little twigs on the LR and between his tail and legs. Take out the OOF white branch on the LLC. Darken down the broken stick on the LHS. I'm not sure how successful it would be to take out the pooey? branch on top of him. The bird himself is wonderful but feel there could be more detail to find in some of the whites?
I have not had the opportunity to photograph an egret, but I can imagine the skill needed. You have done very well!
Thank you for the Mothers' Day wish. My hair often looks like that!
Glennie, thanks for the thoughtful comments! Yeah, those twigs need to go away. I am not sure the best course of action about the droppings above the bird, but I was not too bothered by it. Maybe because I can see it as part of the scene. I am not too happy with the noise on this one. I should've ETTR'ed this photo, but hey, here is a lemonade!
PS. Hm, what about a slight crop? The bird looks a little unproportionately fat on this one though...
Last edited by Adhika Lie; 05-08-2016 at 10:48 PM.
You have done a great job of pruning out those little twigs. I would be happy with your second post above. The crop line cuts through the poo and I think this makes it less noticeable. To be honest, I didn't notice any noise.
Hi Glennie, thanks for the encouragement and suggestions on this picture. I did apply NR using Nik Dfine on the photo. Maybe I have been looking at this for a little too long but I feel like the BG blur looks weird after the NR. I probably should only make the judgment call tomorrow. But oh how I wish I have ETTR'd this photo!
Left -- a couple of short sticks and a white thing that could be the end of stick or a stray feather stuck on a stick. And maybe some cleanup in the UL corner. Being nitpicky, for sure...
Bad Hair Day
