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Thread: Snowy egret, again!

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    Default Snowy egret, again!

    This is still from my last trip to Florida. I remember giving up taking close up shots of the birds at the St Augustine's rookery and went into a more landscape-y style instead. Here is one attempt at that which I quite like from composition perspective. The branch that comes down in the middle gives sorts of a very nice frame to the bird. Unfortunately, I didn't nail the exposure on this one and had to raise exposure on post (+0.65), luckily I was shooting at relatively low ISO (400). Recovered some highlights (-47), raise up the shadows to get the background well exposed (+100), Whites (+42) and Blacks (-12) to adjust the contrast and brightness of the bird. Add a touch of clarity and vibrance to give it a little bit of pop.

    In Affinity (Adobe PS equivalent), I added a little bit of BG field blur to the OOF areas and paint some of the white stuffs on the tree barks. I didn't completely eliminate them because it feels a little more realistic to me but at the same time, I don't want the BG to look "rough".

    As usual, I am looking forward to hearing from all of you! :)

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    Wow, what a beauty, I wish those would come up to Minnesota more, I rarely see them! Love the photo, looks nicely exposed and developed, I think I might prefer a vertical crop
    ~MT

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    Adhika, I like your unconventional (who cares about the rules) way of thinking. I really like what you are trying to achieve here. For me, the branch down the middle cuts this image in half. Bird on one side, foliage on the other. The branch frames the bird beautifully and think you could do more with this sort of crop? I do also like the BG, but I would consider cleaning up the little twiggy things aiming at the bird.

    Colours look nice and natural. I can see a 3D effect almost. I would maybe have a look at a bit more sharpening on his head.

    Beautiful Adhika!

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    Hey Adhika! After reading Glennie's comments and re-looking at the pic, I agree with her on both the framing issue and the little brow twig on LL going into the wing. On the original, do you have ability to try a vertical crop as Michael suggested? Could be interesting. If not, I would put the large limb at the far right of frame (cut out the extra green foliage) come in a little closer and see how it looks (hopefully IQ would be ok).

    Your comments on "landscape-style" are mirroring my feelings on many of my shots. I mostly want to capture pictures of birds in their natural environment; a sense of "this is how you'd find them in the wild".


    AP

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    Wow! Gorgeous! Reminds me of what Robert Bateman would do!

    Whites are beautiful, and so are darks. The bird and the leaves on the right are so strong that the limb in the center doesn't bother me. It does frame the bird so nicely. You might experiment with darkening it, though. I love that the feet show.

    All I would suggest is removing the small twig coming in from the lower left.

    Can't wait to see more! I'm way overdue to get back to FL.

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    Michael, Glennie, & AP: Thanks so much! For some reasons, I can't feel the vertical crop. Here is a screenshot that shows the original image. Let me know what you guys think.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I do agree on cutting some on the right. At first, I thought this picture was a very good example where I could break the rule of thirds and I have to admit that it was a refreshing sight at first. But later on, I can definitely feel the imbalance from the negative space on the right. Here is a revision with the clean up suggested as well. I was not too bothered by the twigs cutting the bird at first (I gave up getting a clean shot at this rookery anyway), but everyone made a really good point on taking that twig out. I just hope I did a good job reconstructing the feather detail.

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    Since this is ETL, I can show my "cheat sheet": Here is a 100% crop on the reconstruction.... I hope it's quite believable. It's hard reconstructing those details. I ended up adding a little bit of field blur on the feather in the close vicinity.

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    Diane, thank you so much!

    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    All I would suggest is removing the small twig coming in from the lower left.
    You were talking about the twig on the very LL corner right? I saw that right away after posting and took it out.

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    This crop works, too. Maybe go after the partial leaves in the UR corner. And now I wonder about removing the horizontal piece of the triangle where you did surgery on the branches. Or at least darken it. Excellent work there!

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    Diane, I will see what I can do to the horizontal twigs. Here is one with darkening the triangle and cutting off the sliver of leaves on the UR corner. Reconstructing the feather like that feels like cheating some time, but oh well!

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    Adhika, I hope you don't mind, I took a shot at your pic with my version of a re-crop. Mine also does not conform with the ROT, but I think that's OK because of the framing aspect of the branch and the leaves.

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    Just another way to think about it ..........


    AP


    AP

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    AP, square crop works, too, though you lose the foliage and the negative space on the right.

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    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Adhika, sorry a bit late. Here's my take. I like what you have done with the crop...and the branch mid way is starting to grow on me. I have done a very quick cloning job of that little triangular twig, (I couldn't believe what You did with his feathers!) and added some leaves and taken away some little twigs that were most annoying to me. I also darkened his bill and the tree behind him to show his feathers.

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    Thanks, Glennie! Now I need to remove that triangle as well! haha

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